06/14/05

 The European Commission completed the investigation of this company by establishing that Microsoft Corporation made an illegal action because it did not take into consideration the European Union Competition Law. This firm decided to transfer its monopoly from the PC operating systems into the work group server one. As well, the company monopolized the media players market. As this illegal performance is still going on, the firm has been punished with a fee of 497.2 million euros for taking advantage in an unethical way of its competitors. Also, Microsoft Corporation will have to avoid setting any commercial or technological expression that would make the version of Windows less desirable. In addition, the firm would have to stop offering discounts to PC manufacturers if they purchase Windows at the same time of WMP. Monti who is in charge of the Competition Commission established that this type of policies are very useful because they put and end to the collateral damages caused to consumers by multinational companies. The consequence of the application of these type of laws is that leading companies will act under a fair competition.

The Commission thinks that with this penalizations, companies will improve their corporate culture by focusing it in an ethical way.