Leader: Microsoft ruling sets EU against US

The US has taken umbrage at the EC imposing penalties on Microsoft - adopting a protectionist attitude towards the treatment of the software giant.

Because the case involved a US company, US complainants and US intellectual property it is claimed that Europe had no right to intervene - despite the fact Microsoft products are sold widely throughout the EC's jurisdiction.

A letter signed by US senators from both sides of the house claimed: "This case involves a US company, that the complaining parties in the EU were primarily US companies and that all of the relevant design decisions occurred in the United States."

As such, they say the EC should have kept its hands off - 'Microsoft may be a convicted monopolist, but they're our convicted monopolist' would appear to be the message coming out of the US.

To which the EC might be tempted to respond - should this descend into a war of words (and we dearly hope it does) - that 'perhaps if you'd taken appropriate globally-applied measures against Microsoft in the first place then this wouldn't have been necessary'.

The arrogance inherent in a statement such as "it is imperative that we maintain America's competitiveness" really does suggest America believes the rest of the world owes it a living. Obviously that's based on the comments of these senators but their heavy-handed nationalism does little to improve already critical international relations.

The EC has every right to govern the competitive compliance of any company which wishes to sell products across the EU.

The US would be the first to take preventative action against European companies which sold into the US and infringed its laws and this posturing smacks of the growing trend towards an increasingly insular and isolationist United States which expects everything on its doorstep to be closely guarded but still expects the rest of the world to comply with its wishes as well.

Such a stance will re-open old wounds, such as those exposed by last year's US vs Europe patent row which erupted around the issue of mobile phone roll-outs in Iraq.

In short, the US has to accept that globalisation is not a one way street and law-making in such matters not the sole preserve of Washington. The wants and wishes of Microsoft in election year may open all sorts of doors in DC, but such powers, thankfully, still carry little sway in Europe.