jameznyhc
09-17-2007, 03:42 PM
And has to make major consessions to their rivals.. fuckin socialists
Microsoft lost on Monday a landmark EU antitrust case at Europe's second-highest court, which upheld the main points of a 2004 European Commission ruling against the software giant.
"The Court of First Instance essentially upholds the Commission's decision finding that Microsoft abused its dominant position," it said in its ruling delivered in Luxembourg.
In a bid to close the book on its struggles with competition authorities, Microsoft had asked the European Court of First Instance to annul a 2004 antitrust decision by the European Commission.
After a five-year probe, the top European competition regulator hit Microsoft at the time with a record fine of nearly half a billion euros and ordered the company to make crucial concessions to rivals.
The finding is likely to deal a painful blow to a business strategy that has made Microsoft one of the biggest and most profitable companies in the world.
"All who have followed the Microsoft case agree this judgment is a cliffhanger," said lawyer Alec Burnside with law firm Linklaters.
The company will have a little more than two months after the verdict to decide whether or not to lodge a new appeal with Europe's highest tribunal, the European Court of Justice.
While Microsoft emerged in 2001 from a similar case in the United States relatively unscathed, EU regulators have taken a much harder line towards the company than their US counterparts.
In March 2004, the Commission took its biggest antitrust decision ever by ruling that Microsoft was using it 95-percent share of the market for personal computer operating systems to elbow rivals out of other more competitive markets.
In particular, the Commission has accused Microsoft of using its near monopoly in PC operating systems to grab share of the markets for operating systems on back-office servers and for media players that can run video or music.
As part of the ruling against Microsoft, the Commission ordered the company to reveal secret computer code to rivals so they could develop competing products and to sell a version of its ubiquitous Windows operating system without its media player programme.
Brussels fined Microsoft a further 280 million euros in July 2006 after finding that it was not respecting its original ruling, and the company faces further penalties that could bring the total well past one billion euros.
Microsoft lost on Monday a landmark EU antitrust case at Europe's second-highest court, which upheld the main points of a 2004 European Commission ruling against the software giant.
"The Court of First Instance essentially upholds the Commission's decision finding that Microsoft abused its dominant position," it said in its ruling delivered in Luxembourg.
In a bid to close the book on its struggles with competition authorities, Microsoft had asked the European Court of First Instance to annul a 2004 antitrust decision by the European Commission.
After a five-year probe, the top European competition regulator hit Microsoft at the time with a record fine of nearly half a billion euros and ordered the company to make crucial concessions to rivals.
The finding is likely to deal a painful blow to a business strategy that has made Microsoft one of the biggest and most profitable companies in the world.
"All who have followed the Microsoft case agree this judgment is a cliffhanger," said lawyer Alec Burnside with law firm Linklaters.
The company will have a little more than two months after the verdict to decide whether or not to lodge a new appeal with Europe's highest tribunal, the European Court of Justice.
While Microsoft emerged in 2001 from a similar case in the United States relatively unscathed, EU regulators have taken a much harder line towards the company than their US counterparts.
In March 2004, the Commission took its biggest antitrust decision ever by ruling that Microsoft was using it 95-percent share of the market for personal computer operating systems to elbow rivals out of other more competitive markets.
In particular, the Commission has accused Microsoft of using its near monopoly in PC operating systems to grab share of the markets for operating systems on back-office servers and for media players that can run video or music.
As part of the ruling against Microsoft, the Commission ordered the company to reveal secret computer code to rivals so they could develop competing products and to sell a version of its ubiquitous Windows operating system without its media player programme.
Brussels fined Microsoft a further 280 million euros in July 2006 after finding that it was not respecting its original ruling, and the company faces further penalties that could bring the total well past one billion euros.