[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5254-5255]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           EUROPEAN COMMISSION DECISION UNDERMINES SETTLEMENT

  (Mr. BAIRD asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BAIRD. Mr. Speaker, the European Commission's antitrust 
investigation of Microsoft offered an opportunity to complement the 
recent U.S. settlement reached with the software corporation. 
Unfortunately, the Commission's ruling undermines the U.S. settlement 
and signals potential danger for the technology sector and for 
consumers at home and abroad.
  The Commission's ruling will impose drastic anticompetitive penalties 
on Microsoft, including a requirement that Microsoft sell a degraded 
version of its Windows software without a media player. Microsoft is 
already subject to a tough regulatory framework that promotes 
competition and innovation, and European consumers and companies 
continue to enjoy the benefits of this framework.
  The Commission's ruling, however, will now subject Microsoft to a new

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and contradictory set of regulations. The negative impact of this 
ruling will also extend far beyond the U.S. information technology 
industry as a whole. Competition authorities in other countries may now 
decide to follow the Commission's lead and reject long-standing 
principles of international comity, beginning a chain of second-guesses 
and doubts surrounding the U.S. in matters involving U.S. companies.
  For all these reasons, I strongly urge our administration to use 
every available resource to ensure that the European Commission 
reconsider its current strategy and redouble its efforts to resolve 
this dispute in a manner that complements rather than undermines the 
U.S. settlement and which offers improved computer software, not 
dismembered operating systems with less efficient platforms for 
consumers and businesses worldwide.

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