FYI

[Constantinos Velentzas]

Open Forum Europe (OFE) Calls on EU to Crack Down on Public Procurement 
Practice for IT Software

Strasbourg 22 October 2008 - OFE has monitored public procurement 
notices for computer software published on Tenders Electronic Daily. 136 
contact notices were scanned for trademarks in the period from February 
1 to April 25, 2008. OFE's monitoring exercise shows that in 34 tender 
notices out of 136 (25 percent), company brand names were mentioned in 
procurement documents effectively preventing competition from 
alternative products. In 17 cases (12.5 percent), tender notices 
mentioned Microsoft or one of Microsoft’s products.

Graham Taylor, Chief Executive of OFE commented “Frankly we were shocked 
at the likely extent of the problem. Public authorities not only stand 
accused of wasting potentially billions by inefficient purchasing, but 
also locking their users and citizens into today's solutions, and being 
unable to take advantage of new innovation in the future”

Source and more info:
http://www.openforumeurope.org/press-room/latest-news/ofe-calls-on-eu-to-crack-down-on-public-procurement-practice-for-it-software-studies