Srdjan Popovic

Will Adobe Scream 'Anti-Competitive' in the Face of a Microsoft Attack?

But the EU did not force them to drop pepperoni from the menu, only to let the customers choose if they want pepperoni or not. And it did not make the customers have to go elsewhere, they did not forbid anyone to install these programs from Microsoft. The point was to make installation of these programs optional.

When you buy a new car you can usually choose which CD player you want inside. From the EU perspective, if the car producer also makes CD players, they must allow the customers to choose if they want their player or another one, from another producer. We may like it or hate it, but that is the EU competition law.

Will Adobe Scream 'Anti-Competitive' in the Face of a Microsoft Attack?

From the European Commission's Directorate General for Competition perspective it doesn't matter if a program is installed on 98% or 8% of PCs, and they are right, it shouldn't matter as long as it is the customer's choice. The problem with Microsoft was that the programs were bundled with operating system and pre-installed for users, who did not have the right to choose not to install them, except by giving up on the OS or by uninstalling them later. It is about freedom of choice, not about percentages of users.