On Tuesday 17 September 2002 11:06, Richard Ibbotson wrote:
Dear all
Had a letter from the European Commission this morning concerning the message that you can see below.
I have just received the same letter. Personally I can't see how having 5 or 500 resellers of M$ products under G-CAT 2 makes any difference to the fact that only one product is being considered and hence it should be tendered against other similar products, it there are none, its a monopoly and should therefore be treated as such. The bit in the letter that says However since this agreement simply covers the manufacturer's licence to use goods in circumstances where the procurement of those goods takes place pursuant to a properly advertised and lawful framework agreement, there does not appear to be any infringement of Community public procurement law. seems to simply mean that if the company is a big software company with a monopoly product, no account needs to be taken of value for money procedures. Not sure anything can be done about it but it wouln't take much effort for everyone to E-mail nicholas.kaye@cec.eu.int to say that as a European taxpayer you are appaulled that in the case of Microsoft and the NHS the EU is happy to allow a foreign monopoly to thrive unchecked at the expense of the European software industry - or words to that effect. Remember the squeaky hinge gets the grease so just keep squeaking :-) Regards, -- IanL