Big Fines — Not Fine!

So Microsoft got hit with the most ridiculous — by which I mean the biggest — fine in European Commission history.  At this point, the EU’s crusade against the company just seems obnoxious.  It’s probably (okay, certainly) too much to ask the EU to come out against anti-trust entirely, but the continuing, escalating fines they’re imposing are just starting to seem boorish.  What do they have left to prove at this point?  Microsoft’s a large corporation that’s succeeded spectacularly well in the software marketplace, and it seems EU regulators for some reason feel the need to punish them for doing so.

I suppose I just find the entire reasoning behind fining a company for "abuse of a dominant position" nonsensical — especially when regulators try to claim that they’re "promoting competition." The whole point of competition is to stay on top once you get there, not let your competitors leech off of your work. that, in turn, should lead strong competitors to fight harder and develop more innovative ways to beat whoever’s got the biggest marketshare. Forced sharing in the form of interoperability mandates just allows other companies the opportunity to skate on the innovations of another.  It doesn’t promote competition so much as it discourages innovation. Sadly, EU regulators don’t seem to see it that way.