[ Europe / Software / Consumer ] ================================================================ Share your operating system bundling tales with the EU ================================================================ Berlin / Paris, April 14th 2011 -- FFII and AFUL ask consumers affected by operating system bundling or businesses involved in bundling to provide their evidence to the European Competition authority.
"My choice is Debian GNU/Linux", explains FFII Vice president Rene Mages. "Why have I been compelled to pay and erase Windows 7 at purchase time?" The European Commission admits it was aware of the difficulties encountered by consumers who want to purchase a PC with a non-Microsoft operating system or without any operating system at all. But they also say they lack evidence suggesting that this is the result of practices in violation of EU competition rules. "We want to crowdsource the collection of evidence", says AFUL's President Laurent Séguin. "If the EU finds anticompetitive agreements that foreclose competition or abuse a dominant position on the relevant market, that would be a magic bullet." ================================================================ Commission contact ================================================================ Submission Form: Information on competition problems affecting consumers http://ec.europa.eu/competition/forms/consumer_form_en.html ================================================================ Links ================================================================ Answered Written Question from MEP Jens Rohde (ALDE) to the Commission: 'The preinstallation of Microsoft Windows' http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+WQ+E-2011-002007+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN Article 102 on the Functioning of the European Union http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:12008E102:EN:NOT Related FFII press releases: http://press.ffii.org/Press%20releases/Microsoft%20will%20trump%20EU%20competition%20ruling%20with%20patents http://press.ffii.org/Press%20releases/EU%20tells%20open%20source%20to%20start%20paying%20MS%20patent%20tax Permanent link to this press release: https://press.ffii.org/Press%20releases/Share%20your%20operating%20system%20bundling%20tales%20with%20the%20EU ================================================================ Contact ================================================================ FFII Office Malmöer Str. 6 D-10439 Berlin +49-30-41722597 Fax Service: +49-721-509663769 office at ffii.org (German/English) Laurent Séguin, Président de l'AFUL Paris, +33 (0)6 63 94 87 16 laurent.seguin at aful.org (French/English) Alain Coulais, Racketiciel workgroup AFUL Paris, +33 (0)6 20 61 43 66 alain.coulais at aful.org (French/English) Benjamin Henrion FFII Brussels +32-484-56 61 09 (mobile) bhenrion at ffii.org (French/English) ================================================================ About FFII ================================================================ The FFII is a not-for-profit association registered in twenty European countries, dedicated to the development of information goods for the public benefit, based on copyright, free competition, open standards. More than 1000 members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions concerning exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data processing. http://www.ffii.org ================================================================ About AFUL ================================================================ The French speaking Linux and Libre Software Users' Association (AFUL) aims to promote libre software and open standards usage. AFUL is a non-profit association that gathers users, professionals, companies and other organizations based in more than a dozen French-speaking countries and regions (France, Belgium, Switzerland, Quebec, French-speaking African countries, etc.). A recognized voice, AFUL is present in many exhibitions, conferences and meetings. In particular, it has an active role against OS bundled sales (Workgroup against bundled sales, racketiciel.info petition, comparative computer vendor list bons-vendeurs-ordinateurs.info), in favor of interoperability (AFNOR member, participation to Interoperability and accessibility Referentials by DGME, formats-ouverts.org website, etc.), as well as on issues concerning Author Copyrights. http://www.aful.org _______________________________________________ FFII Press Releases. (un)subscribe via https://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/news, or contact [email protected] for more information.
