Active Choice vs. Inertia? An Exploratory Assessment of the European Microsoft Case's Choice Screen.

The article examines the impact of the browser "choice screen" remedy resulting from the 2009 European Commission settlement with Microsoft, which required Windows users in the European Economic Area (EEA), Croatia, and Switzerland to be presented with a screen allowing them to select their preferred web browser instead of defaulting to Internet Explorer (IE). Using StatCounter data and a Differences-in-Differences empirical approach comparing the EEA to similar developed countries without the choice screen, the analysis finds that the choice screen had a negligible effect on reducing IE's market share—estimated between 1.4 and 2 percent—despite IE's overall decline coinciding with the remedy's implementation. The study highlights that IE's market share decline was largely driven by the rise of competitors like Chrome and suggests that consumer inertia, familiarity with experience goods, and the design and reach of choice screens influence their effectiveness. It concludes that policymakers should critically reassess assumptions about default effects and the efficacy of forced choice remedies in digital markets, considering behavioral factors and the heterogeneity of consumer preferences.