Jay Inslee: Washington's 1st Congressional District
Issues
Microsoft Trial
Statement on European Commission's Ruling Against Microsoft
23 March 2004
U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee today released the following statement to express his deep disappointment with reports of the European Commission’s impending ruling against Microsoft in its antitrust case.
“If press reports are true, this ruling will be as ill-conceived as it is outrageous. I view the impending decision as a direct attack on our nation’s creative genius and on U.S. policies designed to support economic growth.
It is commendable that the European Union and Microsoft appear to have reached agreement on the substantive issues in this case, but it is offensive to our system of justice that, when seeking future standards on interoperability and product integration, the European Commission attempts to trump U.S. regulations, burden the U.S. economy, and impose restrictive, anti-consumer standards on a company that leads the world in information technology innovation.
If press reports are true, the European Commission’s ruling against Microsoft has the potential to saddle one of America’s most innovative companies with regulations that not only bridle the company’s creativity, but dramatically reduce benefits to consumers worldwide. The commission’s ruling is especially objectionable because it wholly ignores the settlement that Microsoft and U.S. authorities painstakingly crafted in the U.S. antitrust proceedings less than two years ago, and in doing so will threaten the vitality of the U.S. information technology industry. It is a slap in the face against the U.S. Justice Department, the U.S. courts and principles of international comity. In fact, the reported remedies in the European Commission’ s decision are precisely the type of remedies that the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Department of Justice rejected, because they will undermine consumer benefits.
I will urge the administration to use every available mechanism to ensure that the principles of comity and international cooperation are fully respected by the European Commission. It is vital that the commission make renewed efforts to resolve this dispute in a manner that complements rather than undermines the U.S.’s settlement of the matter.”