Multiven

Multiven Files Antitrust Complaint Against Cisco Systems with Swiss Competition Commission

January 30, 2012

ZURICH, Switzerland. – Monday, January 30, 2012, Multiven GmbH (“Multiven”) today filed an antitrust complaint against Cisco Systems (“Cisco”) with the Swiss Competition Commission, in an effort to open up the network maintenance services marketplace for Cisco equipment, promote free and fair competition while enhancing consumer choice and value. Multiven’s complaint alleges that Cisco abuses its dominant position to harm consumers by bundling and tying software bug fixes, patches and updates ("software updates") for its operating system and application software to its maintenance services (“SMARTnet”) and through a series of other illegal exclusionary and anti-competitive acts designed to maintain Cisco’s monopoly in the network maintenance services market for Cisco networking equipment, which represents 75% of the world’s Internet infrastructure.

The complaint recites that instead of making these necessary software updates available to all customers that have purchased its operating system and application software licenses, as does Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and many others, Cisco makes these software updates only available to those customers that have purchased its SMARTnet service.  The complaint further alleges that Cisco also engages in a series of illegal exclusionary and anti-competitive acts such as (but not limited to);

Cisco coercing its 52,000 reseller partners to refuse-to-deal with Multiven and not resell better quality and/or lower cost services from Multiven – an Independent Service Organization (“ISO”) – that competes with Cisco SMARTnet,
Cisco voiding the software licenses of customers that install their valid Cisco software on genuine Cisco equipment procured from Cisco-independent sources.

These acts aimed at preventing competitors like Multiven from servicing Cisco networking equipment have had the following anti-competitive and injurious effects in the Swiss marketplace for Internet network services:

Competition in the market for service and maintenance of Cisco networking equipment has been suppressed and virtually eliminated. Additionally, ISOs have been effectively precluded from competing for and earning profits on the servicing of Cisco networking equipment.
Customers have been deprived choice and forced to purchase Cisco SMARTnet maintenance services over that of substantially better quality and/or lower priced maintenance services from ISOs like Multiven; and
Consumers have been harmed because supracompetitive prices have been maintained and increased, and the quantity, quality and choice of service offerings in the marketplace has been reduced and constrained.

Multiven’s requested remedies are intended to give consumers greater freedom, choice and cost savings while ensuring that the network maintenance services marketplace develops into an open, fair and competitive industry where Cisco competes solely based on the quality and value of its services.

Multiven is represented by Schellenberg Wittmer - led by Dr. Jürg Borer and Dr. Juhani Kostka.

About Multiven 

Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, Multiven is the leading provider of affordable maintenance services for all Internet networks. Through its advocacy group, Multiven is leading a global industry-wide effort to open up the multi-Billion dollar per annum Internet network maintenance services marketplace to free and fair competition which will lead to lower operational and capital expenditure for network operators and a reduced Internet voice, video, TV and data costs for consumers. For more information about Multiven, please visit www.multiven.com.

Multiven is a registered trademark of Multiven, Inc. and Multiven GmbH. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Canada Foils Cisco's Plot to Criminalize Competition

July 19, 2011

Overview:

On December 1, 2008, Multiven filed Multiven v. Cisco, a landmark anti-trust lawsuit against Cisco Systems exposing Cisco's monopolistic and illegal practice of tying software bug fixes to its multi-Billion dollar annual maintenance service contracts. A malpractice designed to exclude Independent Service Organizations from competing in the $15+ Billion a year maintenance services business for Cisco equipment which represents 75% of the worlds Internet infrastructure. The consequence of this was that owners of Cisco networking infrastructure paid supracompetitive prices every year to maintain their Cisco equipment and passed the high costs to consumers' Internet bills.

Subsequent Facts:

Pursuant to an unsuccessful April 2009 mediation, Cisco filed a number of unfounded and baseless counterclaims aimed at distracting from the anti-trust suit. The counterclaims were revised several times with the latest iteration falsely alleging that Multiven founder and CEO - Mr Peter Alfred-Adekeye, a Nigerian-born British entrepreneur, was in breach of the US computer fraud and abuse act for allegedly having viewed password protected portions of Cisco's public website cisco.com using a Cisco employee volunteered password. In its claim, Cisco alleged that it suffered a loss of "over $14,000".
Coincidentally, Mr Alfred-Adekeye was repeatedly denied US Visas that would have enabled him travel to California to personally attend Multiven v. Cisco. On February 24, 2010, Mr Alfred-Adekeye wrote President Obama to intervene on the visa issues. Nothing appears to have come from that request. As a result of his visa denial, Mr Alfred-Adekeye's deposition was ordered by the US court to take place in Vancouver Canada.
On May 20, 2010, during the Multiven v. Cisco deposition of Multiven's CEO in Vancouver Canada, Cisco orchestrated and engineered his arrest for allegations that mirrored Cisco's civil counter-claim in Multiven v. Cisco. Cisco and the US DoJ requested Canadian authorities to detain, deny bail and extradite Mr. Alfred-Adekeye to face 'charges' in California.
All the correspondence from the US Department of Justice, authored by the prosecutor, US Assistant Attorney Richard C. Cheng to the Canadian Government and Judiciary were full of "half truths, untruths, false innuendo and generally misleading information" as well as racially derogatory negative stereotypes that played on Mr Alfred-Adekeye's African roots.
The arrest took place in the presence of a US High Court Judge appointed Special Master - Mr George Fisher with Cisco's lawyers insisting on filming the entire arrest 'on the record'. See deposition video clip.
Mr Alfred-Adekeye was released after 28 days in custody and had to remain in Canada for over a year on very strict bail terms.

Canadian Court Ruling:

On May 31, 2011, the Honorable Mr Justice McKinnon of the British Columbia Supreme Court stayed the extradition proceedings and set Mr Alfred-Adekeye free on the grounds that the entire criminal proceedings was an abuse of process. Below are some excerpts from the ruling (download full PDF below)

[37] "…Fundamental to respect for the criminal law is the notion that issuance of criminal proceedings to effect resolution of civil matters ought not to be countenanced. Such a process encourages unseemly partnerships which, when viewed by a well-informed public, would bring the administration of justice into disrepute. At bar, it would appear cisco representatives were very much complicit with US Justice authorities to utilize the criminal process to put as much pressure on Mr Alfred-Adekeye as they possibly could."

[39] "Thus we have a man [Adekeye] who has no criminal record, who has made every possible effort to comply with United States immigration laws and procedures, but dare to take on a multinational giant, rewarded with criminal charges that have been so grotesquely inflated as to make the average, well-informed member of the public blanche at the audacity of it all."

[63] "…the criminal complaint mirrors the civil complaint, and the only reasonable inference I can draw from the facts is that the criminal process was used to pressure (unsuccessfully) [Mr Alfred-Adekeye] into abandoning his antitrust suit against Cisco. In invoking the extradition process, the requesting state painted a sinister picture of the applicant which was completely unjustified. Any well-informed person acquainted with the truth would conclude that the collective result of the mistreatment of Mr Alfred-Adekeye offended fundamental notions of justice damaging to the integrity of the administration of justice."

Multiven's official statement:

Multiven is overjoyed that the Canadian Judiciary foiled Cisco's plot to criminalize competition. Mr Alfred-Adekeye is most grateful for the empathy and support shown him throughout his ordeal by the good people of Canada and all well meaning people from the world over.

Cisco's action is an affront to the core principles of all civilized free market societies that are founded on the basis of equality and freedom of people and markets. No corporation, no matter how big, should be allowed to abuse the criminal justice system in order to subdue competition.

Multiven is committed to ensuring that consumers worldwide enjoy freedom, choice and value when procuring network maintenance services for their Cisco Internet infrastructure so that Internet access is available and affordable to all. In the light of the aforementioned, Multiven hereby calls on Governments and businesses worldwide to boycott Cisco as its continued patronage would mean supporting a company that is void of all moral ethical values and is willing to intimidate competitors (and customers alike) in order to meet its numbers.

We intend to hold Cisco, its CEO - John T. Chambers, general counsel - Mark Chandler and all those responsible for this despicable act accountable to the fullest extent of the law.

Download and read the full ruling of the Honorable Mr Justice Ronald McKinnon.