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EU Court Upholds Landmark Antitrust Ruling

Microsoft required to pay a fine of E497 million

By David Worthington

September 19, 2007 — (Page 1 of 2)
Microsoft’s appeal fell on deaf ears Monday as the European Union’s second-highest court upheld the March 2004 European Commission finding that the software maker abused its dominant market position in Europe.

The European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg found that Microsoft had infringed Article 82 of the EC treaty as the commission had claimed. It was found to have engaged in two separate types of misconduct and subsequently fined a landmark E497 million plus court costs.

The two counts were based on Microsoft's refusal to share interoperability information with competitors and for bundling software with Windows that created anticompetitive conditions in the media player marketplace, the commission said.

The courtroom saga began in 1998 after Sun Microsystems levied a complaint against Microsoft for denying its request for Windows Server communication protocols that would have made its Solaris server operating system interoperable with Windows.

Microsoft rejected Sun’s request on the grounds that documentation was available in the public domain and its belief that Sun was attempting to mimic the behavior of Windows, but the commission flatly denied that argument and required it to provide its competitors with interoperability information as a remedy.

Microsoft was also required to strip its Windows Media Player software out of Windows XP.

“The Court considers that the Commission was correct to conclude that the work group server operating systems of Microsoft's competitors must be able to interoperate with Windows domain architecture on an equal footing with Windows operating systems if they are to be capable of being marketed viably,” the court's ruling read. “The absence of such interoperability has the effect of reinforcing Microsoft's competitive position on the market and creates a risk that competition will be eliminated.”

In its upholding of the EC finding on Windows Media Player, the court stated that Microsoft’s bundling of its own software had the inevitable consequence of affecting relations on the market between Microsoft, OEMs and third-party media software vendors by altering the balance of competition in Microsoft’s favor. The court found that to be detrimental to media player makers.

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The DOJ puts Windows 7 under its microscope
Antitrust review of the next release of Microsoft Windows is under way, with the expiration of the government's oversight powers set for next year. Details about service packs for Windows XP and Vista have also been revealed Read More...

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