EU Court to Rule Sept. 17 on Microsoft's Anti-Trust Challenge
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A court will rule on Microsoft's challenge to an order that that imposed hundreds of millions of dollars of fines for what the regulators said was anti-competitive activity.
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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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The date that Microsoft will find out if it has to reform its business practices in Europe has been set - Xmas. The European Union judge deciding the matter has said he will
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A decision on whether to suspend the European Commission&#39;s anticompetition sanctions against Microsoft Corp. pending appeal is expected to come in the first half of next week, according to a source close to the company.
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A European judge is to hold a closed-door meeting today to discuss the lifting of sanctions by the EU in its anti-trust ruling against Microsoft.
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A European Union court will decide on  Monday whether Microsoft abused its near-monopoly position on  the world&#39;s 1 billion computers and servers to push smaller  competitors out of the marketplace.
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A European Union court rules on Monday  whether Microsoft abused its near-monopoly on computer  operating systems to push out rivals, in a protracted case that  has major implications on the EU's power to enforce antitrust  policy.
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Microsoft was expected to show up at a closed-door hearing before Europe's Court of First Instance in Luxembourg today to push for suspension of an order requiring the software giant to alter its flagship product.
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A ruling against the European Commission in the Microsoft antitrust case could affect its ability to regulate competition.
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Legal observers are sceptical of the significance of a ruling by a European court that Microsoft must comply with anti-trust remedies imposed by the European Commission.
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When Europe's second-highest court rules Monday on Microsoft Corp.'s appeal of its landmark antitrust conviction, more will be at stake for regulators than just the behavior of the world's largest software company.
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The European Union court weighing Microsoft's appeal of a 2004 antitrust ruling will release its decision Sept. 17.
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Microsoft was expected to show up at a closed-door hearing before Europe&#39;s Court of First Instance in Luxembourg today to push for suspension of an order requiring
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A European Union judge is due to decide this week if antitrust sanctions imposed on Microsoft  should be suspended -- a move the software giant hopes would lead to new settlement talks.
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A European Union court was to rule Wednesday whether Microsoft Corp. will have to abide immediately by a EU ruling which would force the software giant to change its commercial
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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.
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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.