Chillin'Competition

Ten years ago today, on 24 March 2004, the European Commission adopted its landmark Microsoft decision.

Whether one likes it or not, the 2004 Microsoft decision is arguably the most prominent decision ever adopted by the Commission; it contributed to place DG Comp at the forefront of worldwide competition enforcement, particularly in IT markets.It also started a series of Microsoft’s contributions to the EU Budget (see here for our suggestions on what could be done with the 2 billion Microsoft has paid in fines over recent year 😉 ). In many ways, it marked a turning point in EU competition enforcement.

Some of you may not remember that in the days prior to the decision it all seemed like the Commission and Microsoft would strike a deal. Microsoft’s Ballmer (whose birthday is also today) flew to Brussels probably with the expectation of an amicable hand shake with the then Commissioner Mario Monti. But negotiations derailed…

The whole, very detailed and must-read account of what happened in those days was published in the Financial Times in 2006, in the days prior to the Court hearings in Luxembourg. Tobias Buck wrote a great series of two articles in which he describes the sequence of events in quite some detail and in a novelesque manner.

As any good narration, it contains an interesting character depiction of the main actors of the story, including Mario Monti (“an ascetic man who spoke with professorial precision and never departed from his written brief“), Steve Ballmer (“a ruddy-complexioned, beefy-handed extrovert known for having the loudest voice in any room he occupied and possessor of an enthusiasm and self-belief that tended to drive all before it“), Brad Smith (Msft’s General Counsel, “a cheerful 48-year-old who graduated summa cum laude from  Princeton [who was] described by a Commission official as  the archetypal “problem solver”), Cecilio Madero (now Deputy Director General at Comp, but back then the Head of Unit leading the charge in the case, whose “energy inspired the team of young officials working under him“), Philip Lowe (“a wiry Briton with a penchant for German poetry” who was “keen to be involved” and who took a more “flexible and creative approach“; he just retired a few months ago) and the “three officials – none of them much older than 30 when they started on the case, that formed the core of the investigating team“: Jean Huby (“a young Frenchman  whose quick mind and aggressive style in turn impressed and infuriated the  Microsoft team“, who “had the habit of organising 2am  conference calls” and who went on to be CEO at Areva Wind, now at MAKE), Oliver Sitar (“who left the team after Mr Monti’s decision for a spell at a New York film school” and who later retuned to the Commission and now deals with other issues) and Nick Banasevic (“a soft-spoken British economist who joined from the Commission’s  foreign affairs directorate and is the only one still working on the case”; the “still” in that phrase was written 8 years ago, but Nick is currently the Head of Unit in charge of internet and consumer electronics, and, in many ways, is “still” working on the case and on its ramifications.

For the complete FT behind the scenes story, click here (Part I: How Microsoft and Brussels Squared Up) and here (Part II: When Microsoft and Brussels went separate ways).

For a list of other anniversaries, check AP’s Today in History