Dreier Applauds Settlement Between Sun and Microsoft

April 2, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman David Dreier (R-CA), Chairman of the House Rules Committee, praised the settlement announced today by Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Microsoft Corporation. He also reiterated his concerns about continued European judicial and regulatory actions that re-open final decisions reached in U.S. proceedings.

"I want to congratulate Sun and Microsoft for coming together on a solution that will benefit consumers and spur the kind of innovation that is so critically important to our economy's vitality. Their joint announcement today, settling their anti-trust dispute and committing to make their products more compatible and functional, is a very positive development for the IT industry and the California economy. It is also further evidence that European regulators chose to politicize their anti-trust proceedings by going beyond the scope of the dispute between Sun and Microsoft. They are instead proposing to overturn the settlement of the U.S. case related to Microsoft that was the product of a comprehensive judicial process."

"As the rules of the road of the increasingly global economy are established, one clear lesson is that the leading governments must cooperate in order to protect innovation and investment while deterring anti-competitive behavior. European regulators have taken an unprecedented step away from cooperation and are threatening to create a level of bilateral regulatory uncertainty that would be a clear negative for all businesses operating on both sides of the Atlantic."