Washington, D.C. - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) and the British TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) today spoke out against the European Commission’s (EC) draconian attempts to regulate and stifle business.  CAGW and TPA correctly predicted in September 2007 that the EC’s ruling on the Microsoft antitrust case would open the floodgates for a tsunami of lawsuits and stultifying government.  Along with this week’s announcement that the EC has opened up two new Microsoft probes, other U.S. companies such as Apple, Google, Intel, MasterCard, and Qualcomm have recently come under scrutiny. 

One new Microsoft probe stems from Opera Software’s complaint about bundling Internet Explorer with the Windows operating system.  The EC is considering whether to force Microsoft to unbundle IE and include competitors’ browsers in Windows.  The result would be similar to the EC’s decision to force Microsoft to provide an operating system without its media player.  That turned out to be a disaster as there was virtually no demand for the EC-designed operating system XP-N.

The EC has also gone on the offensive against other successful American companies, including Apple and Intel.  The EC alleges that Apple only allows people to download music from iTunes in their country of residence. The EC claims this is a problem because the cost of downloading songs on iTunes is higher in England and Denmark than in other countries. The EC’s complaint does not mean that Apple has an illegal monopoly; it alleges that Apple is cheating European consumers.

In July 2005, EC investigators raided Intel offices in two countries looking for evidence of antitrust violations.  Despite the antitrust case against Intel brought by Advanced Micro Devices in the United States, the Europeans decided to conduct their own investigation.  According to a July 31, 2007 article in The Wall Street Journal, “As with its continuing case against Microsoft, the Commission isn't responding to gripes from customers or consumers.  The investigations were prompted by AMD, which has launched legal proceedings around the world against its archrival.  This regulatory forum shopping includes a pending lawsuit in a federal court in Delaware filed two years ago.”

“The EU continues to have an inferiority complex with the competition that streams from the United States.  Attempting to pilfer Microsoft’s, Apple’s, or Intel’s intellectual property rights opens the door for other competitors who can’t succeed in the marketplace to tie up the courts and waste tax dollars bringing lawsuits against successful companies.  The stakes continue to be high, and the effect of the EC’s various fines and decisions on innovation will reverberate throughout the world,” said Matthew Elliot, TPA Chief Executive.

“The EC has become entrenched in its own interests, one of which is to stop the spread of American economic influence throughout Europe.  In several prominent cases the EC has shown a complete disregard for intellectual property, antitrust laws, and court decisions in the U.S.  Rather than following the U.S. antitrust decision through what is known as comity for court findings, or acknowledge the rapidly changing technology marketplace, the EC continues its ongoing crusade against successful U.S. companies,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.