The world’s largest software maker announced in a communiqué that it won’t appeal against the European Court of First Instance’s interim ruling of December 22nd, 2004, which put two antitrust remedies into immediate effect. In other words, Microsoft will shortly begin producing and releasing - in Europe - a Windows version stripped of the Media Player. It will also divulge technical information about the Windows software code, to enable competitors in the computer server market to design compatible products.
Today, nine of out ten personal computers run on Microsoft’s Windows operating system, which comes with the Media Player pre-installed. In addition, the software maker has been withholding information critical to designing compatible products. Consequently, the Commission ruled in March 2004 that Bill Gates’s company abuses its market position to exclude competitors. The Commission’s decision came with a fine of 497 million euros, the largest ever in a competition case within the EU, and it forced Microsoft to provide a Windows operating system unbundled from its music and video software and to decode information necessary for compatibility.
On June 7th, 2004, Microsoft filed an appeal against the Commission’s decision, but such an appeal does not by itself suspend the enforcement of the challenged decision. Therefore, the software company specifically requested to delay the implementation of the sanctions pending the outcome of the case. This request was turned down (see Pranvera Kellëzi’s news on the 13th January 2005) by a interim ruling of the Court of First Instance, handed down on December 22nd.
Microsoft backed down and gave up on appealing that ruling. A new version of the incriminated operating system, possibly called Windows XP Reduced Media Edition, will be available to retailers in the coming weeks.
Nevertheless, the company will pursue its main appeal against the Commission’s decision of March 2004, seeking to overturn the remedies in the end, while complying in the meantime.
Reproduction autorisée avec indication de la source :
Thomas Schultz, www.unige.ch/ceje, actualité n°: 194 du 15 février 2005.