24/09/2013 00:00
TW
0

by MONITOR
AFTER nine years of hard legal arguing the European court delivered its verdict in just four minutes yesterday, rejecting Microsoft's appeal against a 2004 judgement that had fined it almost 500 million euros for abusing its dominance of the software market by refusing to share information that would allow “interoperability” between another company's servers and equipment produced by Microsoft. It seems unlikely that Microsoft will choose to mount another expensive and time-consuming appeal although it may find some minor points of law to clarify in the 248-page judgement. Failure to act on the court's rulings can be an expensive business; in 2006 Microsoft were fined an extra 280 million euros for failing to comply with earlier judgements.

This was a significant victory for the European Commission's competition experts. Yesterday the EU's Competition Commissioner, Neeliie Kroes, called for a significant drop in Microsoft's 95% market share in PC operating systems. She said: “You can't draw a line and say exactly a 50% share is correct” but her statement implied that something of that order will be the Commission's objective. She also said the judgement will strengthen the EU's determination to pursue similar cases and to put the consumer's benefit above innovation. It is thought that Intel, the leading microprocessor manufacturer, may be in the Commission's sights.

A key passage in the court's judgement was this: “The absence of interoperability has the effect of reinforcing Microsoft's competitive position on the market and creates a risk that competition will be eliminated.”