EU court crushes Microsoft&#39;s antitrust appeal
255652
A European Union court upheld a  landmark 2004 European Commission antitrust decision against  Microsoft  on Monday in a crucial victory for the  European competition regulator over the U.S. software giant.
710751
A European Union court ruled Wednesday that Microsoft Corp. will have to abide immediately by an EU ruling that forces the software giant to change its commercial practices before the appeals procedure runs its full course.
291988
(InfoWorld) - The European Court of First Instance will give its long-awaited verdict in Microsoft's antitrust appeal on Sept. 17, people involved in the matter said Tuesday. It is by far the biggest antitrust case ever referred to the European Union's second highest court. The outcome of the appeal, which will have taken more than three years, will influence the future shape of the software industry and be a reference point for future antitrust cases, especially those in the fast-changing world of information technology. The European CommissionÂ ruled in 2004Â that Microsoft had abused the dominant position of its Windows OS to muscle in on other sectors of the software market. By bundling Windows Media Player, its audio and video playing software, into Windows, Microsoft competed unfairly against rivals such as Real Networks and Apple, the Commission ruled. And by failing to share technical information about how to interoperate with Windows PCs, Microsoft managed to steal a march in the market for low-end server operating systems. Microsoft appealedÂ both threads of that ruling, and in April last year the court held a three-day hearing at which the Commission and Microsoft, together with their respective software industry allies, tried to convince the judges of their arguments. There are four possible outcomes of September's decision, two of which are clear cut but unlikely, and the other two mixed and more probable. First clear-cut but unlikely outcome: the court sides with the Commission on both parts of the case -- media player and server interoperability. It deems Microsoft an obstacle to innovation in the software industry and orders the immediate break-up of the company, effectively appropriating the Windows operating system and making it a public utility. Second clear cut but unlikely outcome: the court sides with Microsoft on both counts. It declares that the break-neck speed of change in the IT industry is defined by a string of monopolies and that one monopoly is inevitably overtaken by another in time. Therefore, regulators should not apply antitrust laws too strictly, and should allow dominant operators such as Microsoft to use all means to prolong and expand their dominance of a market. More likely, the court will give a mixed ruling. It may side with the Commission on interoperability but uphold Microsoft's appeal of the bundling ruling. Microsoft is ordered to release all interoperability information to rivals immediately. The result would be growth of Microsoft's largest direct rivals, at its expense, and a flattening of the software market as we know it today, with Microsoft brought slightly more into line with the likes of Sun Microsystems, Oracle, and IBM. It would also open up Microsoft Office to open source software rivals, who until now have been marginalized in the lucrative desktop application market. However, Microsoft would no longer need to sell a second version of Windows with the Media Player stripped out, which it has been forced to do in Europe today, and it would most probably bundle more and more features with Windows in future, to the likely detriment of any halfway successful innovation from a software developer such as Google. In a nutshell, this outcome would restore fair competition in the software markets that existed in the 20th century but it would do nothing to impede Microsoft from muscling in on new markets that have already started to emerge this century. Alternatively, Microsoft could lose the bundling argument but win on the interoperability side. The Court orders Microsoft to set up a separate company to sell a completely unbundled version of Windows, a turbo-charged "edition N," if you like (the name for its version of Windows without Media Player). This separate entity would be free to compete with the fully bundled version, and free to strike partnerships with any other software developer. However, Microsoft could still withhold information about Windows from rivals to handicap them in some markets, such as the low-end server operating system market. This would allow Microsoft to dominate the traditional, office-based computing environment, at the expense of rivals such as Sun Microsystems, IBM, and Oracle. Put simply, this outcome would secure Microsoft in all the fat, but mature markets connected to the office environment, but would limit its ability to fend off challenges in new fields linked to the Internet. The third of these outcomes is the likeliest, according to lawyers following the case, although none would be quoted predicting the court's decision. Â
488605
LUXEMBOURG/BRUSSELS  - Microsoft Corp. lost a  European Union court appeal on Wednesday against sanctions  imposed by EU regulators that will force it to change business  practices and sell a stripped-down version of Windows.
181339
The European Union (EU) Court of First Instance has upheld sanctions slapped by the European Commission against Microsoft Corporation, ordering the world&#39;s largest software company to change business practices and reveal some trade secrets.
87483
Microsoft has decided not to appeal&#160;last month&#39;s appeal ruling&#160;against it from the Court of First Instance (CFI) and has finally&#160;agreed to comply&#160;with the European Commission&#39;s&#160;2004 antitrust ruling&#160;that sparked the company&#39;s appeal.The decision to accept the CFI&#39;s ruling will dispel any lingering uncertainty facing software and hardware developers over how to plan future product development.&quot;We will not appeal the CFI&#39;s decision to the European Court of Justice and will continue to work closely with the Commission and the industry to ensure a flourishing and competitive environment for information technology in Europe and around the world,&quot; the company said in a statement Monday.Last month the Luxembourg-based CFI threw out Microsoft&#39;s appeal, siding with the Commission on the two essential elements in the antitrust case: Microsoft&#39;s failure to share necessary interoperability information about its Windows operating system with rivals and its strategy of tying its media player to Windows to the detriment of rival players.The Commission declined to comment officially on Microsoft&#39;s decision not to appeal.
700489
A European Union court will decide on  Monday whether Microsoft abused its near-monopoly position on  the world's 1 billion computers and servers to push smaller  competitors out of the marketplace.
235975
Microsoft failed Monday in its bid to overturn aÂ European Commission antitrust rulingÂ against it, when the European Union's second highest court dismissed the company's appeal and ordered it to pay the bulk of the Commission's legal expenses.
294782
Microsoft has decided not to appeal&#160;last month&#39;s appeal ruling&#160;against it from the Court of First Instance (CFI) and has finally&#160;agreed to comply&#160;with the European Commission&#39;s&#160;2004 antitrust ruling&#160;that sparked the company&#39;s appeal.
24055
Microsoft was dealt a heavy blow yesterday when a senior European judge upheld the anti-trust sanctions imposed on it earlier this year by the European Commission.
195469
MicrosoftÂ has filed an appeal against the latest antitrust fine imposed on it by the European Commission, a Microsoft spokesman said on Tuesday.
126774
Microsoft Corp. fought yesterday for a suspension of a landmark European Union antitrust ruling pending its appeal, arguing that being forced to share its closely guarded software codes with rivals now would do it irreversible damage.
769813
The EU Court of First Instance on Wednesday upheld sanctions slapped by the European Commission against Microsoft Corp., ordering the world&#39;s largest software company to change business practices and reveal some trade secrets.
139384
A European court on Wednesday ruled against Microsoft in its long-running antitrust confrontation with the European Commission over the company&#39;s Windows software.
467232
The European Union's second highest court dismisses the software giant's appeal against an anti-trust order
113207
To win its appeal for a stay on the antitrust penalties imposed earlier this year by the European Competition Commission, Microsoft Corp.
627953
LONDON, September 28  - An EU appeals court has overturned the European Commission&#39;s four-year old decision to block a proposed merger deal between the US-based telecom companies, WorldCom and Sprint, which was subsequently abandoned.