Google: Please Don't Kill Video on the Web
Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Corporate Standards & Antitrust Group, Microsoft — Earlier today, Microsoft filed a formal competition law complaint with the European Commission (EC) against Motorola Mobility.
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft has already pressed European competition authorities over search, first in a 2010 discussion of search competition and again with its 2011 intervention in the European search debate. The Motorola Mobility filing broadens that regulatory strategy beyond those earlier search-focused concerns.
The complaint places Motorola Mobility before the European Commission as Microsoft pursues competition-law remedies through a body that can shape market conduct across Europe.
First-order effects
- The European Commission receives a formal complaint from Microsoft against Motorola Mobility, requiring Motorola Mobility to address allegations raised through the competition-law process.
- Microsoft adds a Motorola Mobility dispute to its existing record of bringing European competition concerns to regulators.
Second-order effects
- The filing makes European regulatory process a parallel arena for Microsoft and Motorola Mobility, alongside any commercial or technology disputes between the companies.
- Other companies involved in web technology standards gain a clearer incentive to treat European competition oversight as a route for challenging conduct they view as exclusionary.
Third-order effects
- If repeated filings translate into Commission action, competition policy may become a more consequential constraint on how technology companies use control over web standards and related intellectual property.
- The broader pattern is large technology firms using European regulators not only to police search markets but also to contest access and interoperability disputes.
The trend: European competition enforcement is becoming a strategic venue for technology companies seeking to challenge rivals' control over important web-market rules.