The European Commission slapped Microsoft with a fine of EUR 561 million for breaching a 2009 settlement over the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows. Under this agreement, the company promised to display a “browser choice” screen on Windows installs in Europe, inviting users to choose other browsers in addition to the company’s own program.

Karsten Gerloff, president of lobby group Free Software Foundation Europe, said the ongoing Microsoft arrangement was a "disgrace" for the European Commission (EC).
"It's astounding that every single agreement between the Commission and Microsoft since 1993 has been concluded without a public call for tender," he said.

We would like to see the European Commission back up its public rhetoric regarding Free Software, Open Standards and interoperability with its own actions. This would require DIGIT to rethink some procurement practices in order to open up public software procurement to competition.

The European Union is on the cusp of writing public procurement rules which favour patent- and royalty-free technologies, according to software giants who argue that the rules echo Chinese public procurement laws.

This page is the link to the 7 page EC PDF. Is ACTA even keeping some elements of its horrific agenda secret from the nations it hopes will support its plans?

The European authorities no longer take patenting for granted; the situation is still more complex in the US

The BBC practically advertises Vista 7 at the expense of TV licensees; BBC reporter also spins for Microsoft and against the European Commission.

There has been criticism against the European Commission for pursuing abusive behaviour by Microsoft, and against Mozilla for wanting a fair chance to compete against Microsoft. The blog post explains why the Commission is doing the right thing to take antitrust violation seriously, and why the Free Software community should support this case.