HU: Court dismisses competition complaint over Microsoft
The Metropolitan Court's (Fővárosi Bíróság) on Monday dismissed a complaint by Hungary's Competition Office over a government software tender requesting "Microsoft or equivalent solutions".
According to one person who attended Monday's court session, the court in its tentative verdict said that since government institutions already use Microsoft software, it is legally correct to tender for similar or equivalent products. "The judge, Rádi Andrea, said that this is because Microsoft software is compatible only with itself", added the source, who declined to be named.
The court's full verdict will be available in thirty days.
The Competition Office took the Hungarian Public Procurement Authority to court this March, after it refused to annul a 25 billion HUF (about a 100 million euro) tender. The request to cancel this tender had been filed by three Hungarian IT companies specialising in Open Source software solutions, ULX, Multiráció and Open SKM.
On Friday, the Hungarian Competition Office published a statement on the case. The Competion Office says it is convinced the government tender is breaking both Hungarian and European laws on public procurement. However, the Competion Office this week declined to respond to requests for information. "We will base our comments and actions on the published court decision", responded one Competition Official, who also declined to be named.
More information:
- Competition Office statement (in Hungarian)
- Index news item (in Hungarian)
- IT-Cafe news item (in Hungarian)
- FN news item (in Hungarian)
- FN news item (in Hungarian)
- Hirszerzo news item (in Hungarian)
Earlier reports in the OSOR news:
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