March 24,2004

Statement of U.S. Senator Max Baucus: European Union Microsoft Ruling

U.S. Senator Max Baucus today released the following statement regarding the European Commission’s ruling against Microsoft in its long running antitrust case:

“The European Union’s draconian remedies announced today appear to significantly undermine the U.S. government’s authority to regulate its economy and may hamper innovation in the high-tech industry, a sector that has been a significant source of job creation and economic growth for our country for the past decade. The EU’s imposition of a restrictive, unprecedented and extraterritorial regulatory regime threatens not only to hamstring an American company’s ability to deliver future innovations for consumers and businesses across the globe, but also sets back trade relations between the EU and U.S. – at a time when we can ill afford that.

This ruling undermines our ongoing efforts to promote a cooperative and integrated approach to managing our competition laws and trading regimes. At a time when the global economy is becoming more and more interdependent, this decision signals the EU’s desire to go it alone on trade and antitrust issues. That’s disappointing.”