Was Microsoft's EU fine too much? One economics professor says, "Yes"

[pokoko]

zumnupy10 said:

On Wednesday, the European Union's antitrust regulators in the European Commission fined Microsoft 561 million euros, or $732 million, due to Microsoft's violations of a 2009 anti-trust agreement with the EU. Microsoft admitted that a number of Windows 7-based PCs did not display the required web browser download ballot in Europe from 2011 to 2012, as required by the agreement with the EU. Microsoft said it was a software mistake and fixed it once it was discovered.

This requirement shouldn't exist to begin with.

I have no problem with it.  Microsoft still does their best to force people to use IE from time to time, even if some hate the thing.  It's not like you can delete it.  They'd make it completely required if they could get away with it.  I have little sympathy for fallout over Microsoft's business practices given their past history.  We've seen exactly WHY a browser monopoly is bad in the past with Internet Explorer, why people would want that again, I don't know.  Personally, I ignore IE, but from what I understand, they actually try to make it good now that they have competition and can't ignore convention.  The garbage that was IE6 screwed up the internet for a long, long time.  Anyone really want to return to that?

As for the fine, it does seem excessive.  However, Microsoft had a glitch that voided an important, highly publicized agreement and it went undiscovered for an entire year?  Uh huh, right.