Microsoft to offer free software to education and governments
Howard Lake | 15 May 2003 | News
Microsoft plans to offer free and discounted software to governments and educational institutions, although critics have suggested this might contravene European antitrust law.
By offering free and discounted software to particular sectors Microsoft could be viewed as abusing its near monopoly status, according to FT.com. “European law prohibits companies with monopolies using discounts that discriminate between customers and exclude competitors from the market”, reports the financial newspaper.
The donations are presumably part of Microsoft’s efforts to ensure it does not lose out to its rival free operating system Linux.
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Microsoft on the other hand are adamant that the donations programme is legal.
Read “Microsoft to offer free software” by Paul Abrahams and Daniel Dombey at FT.com.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.