Microsoft Yields to EU Antitrust Ruling
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Microsoft early this morning dropped its decade-long antitrust battle with European regulators by agreeing not to appeal a landmark Sept. 17 court ruling.
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After more than three years, European court will give its verdict in the Microsoft antitrust case on September 17.
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Microsoft Corp. goes into round two Friday of its battle to get the European Union&#39;s sweeping antitrust ruling lifted having told a judge that it had been prepared during settlement talks to share more software
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A European court confirmed on Tuesday  that it will rule on September 17 on whether software giant  Microsoft  broke European Union antitrust regulations.
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A European Union court upheld product curbs and a record fine levied by the EU's executive commission against software giant Microsoft for abusing its market dominance.
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Microsoft Corp ended three years of  resistance on Monday, finally agreeing to comply with a  landmark 2004 antitrust decision by the European Commission.
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Microsoft suffered a  stunning defeat on Monday when a European Union court backed a  European Commission ruling that the U.S. software giant  illegally abused its market power to crush competitors.
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A European court confirmed on Tuesday that it will rule on September 17 on whether software giant Microsoft  broke European Union antitrust regulations.
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LUXEMBOURG - The judge deciding whether Microsoft Corp. must comply with the European Commission's remedies for the company's antitrust violations questioned Friday whether the steps ordered by the Commission will effectively curb Microsoft's power.
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Microsoft agrees to comply with the European Commission's 2004 anti-monopoly ruling against it.
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Redmond agrees to adhere to the European Commission's antitrust ruling, a ruling it has resisted at cost of hundreds of millions, and will now open up its Windows operating system to allow rivals to compete.
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BRUSSELS - Microsoft Corp. dropped a nearly decadelong legal battle with European regulators yesterday, agreeing to key parts of an antitrust ruling that has already led to hundreds of millions in fines.
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A European court dealt Microsoft Corp. a severe blow Monday as it rejected the company's appeal of a landmark 2004 antitrust ruling and upheld a $613 million fine against the world's largest software maker.
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Microsoft Corp  ended three years of resistance on Monday, finally agreeing to comply with a landmark 2004 antitrust decision by the European Commission.
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THE RULING: Microsoft Corp. lost an appeal at the European Union's Court of First Instance to get a landmark 2004 antitrust ruling and record 497 million euro ($613 million) fine overturned.
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(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
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Microsoft Corp  ended three  years of resistance on Monday and finally agreed to comply with  a landmark 2004 antitrust decision by the European Commission.