欧州委員会は、Maicrosoft, Google を独占禁止法違反で調査、罰金刑を課す
El azote español de Microsoft
Cecilio Madero, director adjunto de la Comisión, lleva 14 años persiguiendo al gigante informático
El funcionario investiga ahora a Google y a la banca
Claudi Pérez Bruselas 10 MAR 2013 - 00:50 CET
The Spanish scourge of Microsoft
Cecilio Madero, deputy director of the Commission, has 14 years chasing the giant
He now investigates Google and banking
Claudi Perez Brussels 10 MAR 2013 - 00:50 CET
It seems that the first economist who used the term "market failure" was Francis Bator, Harvard professor and U.S. presidential exasesor. Bator wrote two influential articles in the late fifties on the limits of the market economy: in short, he was saying that the famous invisible hand sometimes alela (something that we've noticed lately). One of the most flagrant cases in which failure the magic hand of the market occurs when there are monopolies: few examples attest as well as Microsoft, with its legends on the garage billionaire Bill Gates and his market value. Undisputed king of consumer computing for 20 years, came to control more than 90% of the area of operating systems.
Rivals always accused him of using a wide variety of abusive practices and time proved them right: the group has suffered several setbacks by the competition authorities in the United States, but especially in Europe. The Commission has made a name in the stormy waters of the competition area with a string of fines on the company, endorsed by the courts. A senior Spanish from the beginning has been in the firing line in the Microsoft case: Cecilio Madero.
Madero (Madrid, 1956) arrived in Brussels in 1987, with the first batch of Spanish officials. From the beginning, his career went into competition issues. His relationship with Microsoft started back in 1999, in command of a division "composed of a whopping seven individuals," he recalled in a cafe in the center of the European capital. The temptation of metaphor: a quixotic David against Goliath powerful, because before those seven Eurocrats, Microsoft defended itself against accusations of abuse of dominant position with an army of lawyers most prestigious international firms, the kind that always have to least two Anglo-Saxon names to start talking: White & Case, Morrison & Foerster and so have a law firm in each of the 27 European capitals.
In 1999, the team investigating the firm had only seven members
The rest of the story is known: Microsoft lost. Commissioner Mario Monti imposed a fine lady, which then followed by others-by Neelie Kroes, Brussels for failing decisions or impose excessive prices to competitors. The final chapter has arrived this week, in which the commissioner Joaquin Almunia has signed a new hack of 561 million euros bringing European invoice totaling 2,200 million for an alleged neglect-American group, which for few months did not respect the commitment to Brussels to offer its operating system in a choice of browsers, not just Internet Explorer.
Madero, who has been climbing the ladder rungs of the European civil, no longer plays the role it had in 2004, but still above the case. He has traveled often to the United States, has eaten dozens of lobbyists, has reviewed reams of documents for years. And Redmond knows, within 30 miles of Seattle, home to Microsoft: "It's like a big campus, clean, lots of greenery, with buildings that have more powers pint of production centers. I still say the old office of Bill Gates and see the inevitable cloud of Japanese taking pictures, "he says.
Madridista staunch-and author of a shocking letter to the editor of this newspaper about it, with the title was not me, of those years in which Madrid won the European Cup-Madero spent half his life in Brussels. Up to 26 years at the Commission, which have left a deep concern about the current state of European-, which has spent 14 as a scourge of Microsoft. It has plenty of anecdotes, but always stressed that this could have twisted without the political support of the commissioners-Monti, Kroes, Almunia-and without the final salvo courts.
"Google may have harmed its competitors," explains
But Microsoft, in short, it's water under the bridge. A Madero, director general of the Antitrust Division and posters, the spell will now attracts a new story: it's up to the banks fight covenants related to the Euribor, and especially is poured over a possible case than Google. "The Commission is investigating a possible abuse of dominant position of Google with its search engine," he explains. "In other words, Google may have harmed its competitors, copying information from third parties to present as their own or using different news media without express permission of the publishers. Although it is not excluded that in this case we can reach an agreement that would save years of litigation. "
Attempts by Google to digitize entire libraries without copyright permission, as before those of Microsoft in their field, "radiate the scent of an old-fashioned market power abuse" in the words of Francis Bator almost forgotten.
マイクロソフトのスペインの惨劇
セシリオマデロ、委員会の副局長は、巨人を追いかけて14年持つ
彼は今、グーグルや銀行を調査
Claudiペレスブリュッセル10 MAR 2013 - 午前〇時50分CET
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