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Microsoft Has Google and Opera to Thank for the EU Fine

It appears that Google tipped off EU investigators over Microsoft’s antitrust issue

Mar 7, 2013 13:15 GMT  ·  By
Microsoft's anti-Google push seems to make much more sense now, doesn't it?
   Microsoft's anti-Google push seems to make much more sense now, doesn't it?

Microsoft yesterday received a new multi-million dollar penalty in Europe, and the Redmond-based technology giant was quick to confirm that it has no intention to appeal the decision.

A report published by the Financial Times (registration required) and citing people familiar with the case indicates that Google and Opera both tipped off the European Commission over Microsoft’s failure to provide users with a browser choice screen in Windows 7.

While it may sound a bit unfair, this pretty much makes sense, especially because both Google and Opera own browsers that have been affected by Microsoft’s decision to keep Internet Explorer the only browser on Windows 7 machines.

Google refused to comment on the report, while Opera officials told the sources that they are “happy to see that the Commission is enforcing compliance with the commitment, which is critical to ensuring a genuine choice among web browsers for consumers.”

Back in November 2012 when the investigation in Microsoft’s case was still underway, Opera and Firefox revealed that they had lost millions of users because the Redmond-based software company had broken the pact and “had forgotten” to offer a browser ballot.

Mozilla, for example, said that daily Firefox downloads decreased by 63 percent to only 20,000 in the timeframe without a browser choice screen, while figures basically skyrocketed after Microsoft officially introduced the ballot.

Firefox downloads increased 150 percent to no less than 50,000 per day, so the company lost a total of 9 million downloads due to Microsoft’s “technical issue,” as the Redmondians called it.

Google refused to provide some official statistics regarding the number of downloads recorded during the time the ballot was not available.

Now, you probably remember the Scroogled campaign that Microsoft uses to attack Google and some of its services, including the Shopping service and Gmail. Even though so many people blamed Microsoft for its anti-Google attempts, it seems like it’s not the Redmond-based software giant the one that started the war.