EU and Microsoft come head to head
HELENA SPONGENBERG
14.09.2007 @ 17:27 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – A nine year legal battle between the European Commission and the world's leading software company Microsoft will culminate next week when a European court will rule in Brussels' biggest ever antitrust case, which could have serious consequences either way.
The EU's second highest court – the Court of First Instance - will on Monday (17 September) give its verdict on an appeal case against the EU executive's decision to fine Microsoft nearly half-a-billion euros.
The legal battle has been going on for the last nine years (Photo: EUobserver.com)
An investigation by the commission's antitrust department concluded in March 2004 that Microsoft was squeezing out competition in the media player market, preventing other software developers from making products that work with Windows by holding back technical information.
The EU antitrust regulator told Microsoft to share some of its source code allowing rivals to make compatible software products as well as imposing the fine.
"Microsoft has held a near-monopoly on the PC operating market for fifteen years now," commission spokesman Jonathan Todd told journalists in Brussels ahead of the ruling.
"If Microsoft can abuse its PC system monopoly to exclude competitors from other markets without constraint, consumer choice and innovation will suffer," he added.
Around 95 percent of the world's computers run Microsoft's Windows PC operating system.
Did the commission act illegally?
However, Microsoft challenged the 2004 decision arguing that the commission acted unlawfully when trying to force it to share its source code.
The company says the commission is trying to make new rules that would force successful companies to share the fruits of their research with less successful rivals.
"The outcome of this case is critical not only for Microsoft, but for future innovation in our industry," the US company's chief lawyer Brad Smith has previously said.
"Companies need to have confidence they won't be forced to hand over their valuable intellectual property to their competitors. In addition, companies need to have confidence they can develop new products with the features their customers want."
Ahead of the ruling, UK liberal Sharon Bowles argued that the case is exceptional on a number of fronts.
"If Microsoft's appeal is successful it will give the European Commission an enormous black eye, if not the result is likely to ripple across the entire industry. In reality I am certain the result will be a mixture."
The judgment will be delivered in the morning at 9.30 by a 13-judges court in the "Grande Salle d'Audience", which is expected to be packed for the few minutes it will take to read out the ruling.
Either party can appeal the decision to the European Court of Justice – the EU's highest court – within two months and ten days.