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EC competition commissioner slams US dissing

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Competition Commissioner 'Steely' Neelie Kroes hit back at US politicians who criticised this week's verdict from the Court of First Instance.

On Monday the court roundly rejected Microsoft's appeal of anti-trust charges and upheld the decision to fine the software giant €497m, forcing it to change its behaviour in Europe.

Thomas O Barnett, assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice, said the verdict would take some time to digest, but warned: "[This] may have the unfortunate consequence of harming consumers by chilling innovation and discouraging competition."

His statement is here. Assorted US politicians made similar comments.

Kroes said: "I think it's totally unacceptable that a representative of the US administration criticises an independent court of law outside its jurisdiction. It's absolutely not done. The European Commission doesn't pass judgment on rulings by US courts, and we expect the same degree of respect from US authorities for rulings by EU courts."

In other news, the European Commission yesterday hit a group of zip makers with a €328m ($458m) fine for colluding unfairly. They were found guilty of fixing the price of zips and other fasteners. ®

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Latest Comments

New York Times a M$ sock puppet too?

Surely not! But look:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/technology/18soft.html?th&emc=th

Not so much a puppet as a parrot.

Curiously, a blog, which I can no longer find, run by one of the writers of the article, takes a different view.

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@ B Shubin

You said it all in both your comments.Nice one er two

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Mature nation

@ Lars

actually, the US experienced maturity, responsibility, and a social conscience briefly, around the time of WWII, and has since lapsed into decadence, characterized by long periods of narcissistic oblivion, punctuated by brief moments of horrified self-awareness and occasional diversions into fear-driven aggression.

this is best exemplified by the Baby Boom generation, most of whom refused to reach psychological adulthood, and basically have remained at the maturity level of a 17-year-old boy well into their 50s. of course, now, with their depleted savings and retirement funds, foreclosed houses, offshored jobs, failing Social Security, and privatized Medicare, they wonder how they managed to piss the country away on shopping, wars and tax cuts.

behold the Roman Empire redux, in fast-forward, complete with a mad Emperor, a deadlocked legislature, and a corrupt judiciary. the Huns and Goths are due any minute.

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