Microsoft and Google face huge pay-outs for alleged Anti-Competitive practices.
UK consumers and businesses will be interested to learn the outcome of two multi-billion pound class actions being initiated against these tech giants.
A prominent and very experienced former CPS Barrister – Alexander Wolfson, has decided to take on the goliath that is Microsoft for its alleged anti-competitive practices. It is argued that thousands of businesses were over-charged, when compelled to purchase its ubiquitous software including that for its Microsoft Word and Windows products.
It is understood that Microsoft have yet to respond to the initial ‘Letter before Action’, but many will be interested to see whether matters do proceed to the Competition Appeal Tribunal and the eventual outcome of the threatened litigation.
The CAT will be asked to make a finding that Microsoft illegally inflated the costs of its software licences and will additionally consider expert witness evidence, to establish the scale of the alleged financial losses sustained by thousands of both private and public organisations alike.
An overwhelming number of businesses use the Microsoft range of software so that any adverse finding against Microsoft will have a marked impact on the fairness (and pricing) of the Uk’s digital economy.
Similar themes were examined by the Uk’s Competition and Markets Authority Regulator in the last month as regards the practices of Google, when a making an initial finding that it had abused its dominant digital advertising position, when giving preference to its own services, to the detriment of other competing businesses.
The initial findings concluded that Google used its market power to hinder its competition, by controlling the extent to which those competing adverts were visible for people to see on websites.
Notwithstanding similar investigations being underway in the EU and almost at the trial stage in the US, Google’s anticompetitive conduct is said to be on-going, whilst Google themselves continues to dispute the allegations/findings in a sector of the UK economy valued at £1.8 billion.
These actions are certainly ones to keep an eye on over the forthcoming months, as whether we are individuals, or run businesses, the outcomes of these actions well have an impact on how we operate daily...........
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