MS yields to EC

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 25 October 2007 04:48

IT Policy - Regulation

Microsoft has withdrawn its two remaining appeals against the European Commission.

Since Microsoft is now putting in place a program to license its protocols to open source developers, continuing the appeal against the Commission's order to do so "was moot", company officials said.

The other appeal concerned nul the €280.5 million (approx $US400 million) fine imposed by the Commission in July 2006 over Microsoft's documentation of its communications protocols. Although Microsoft had paid the fine in October 2006, it was seeking annulment of the penalty.

"We believe it's important at this stage to focus all of our energies on complying with our legal obligations and strengthening our constructive relationship with the European Commission," said Erich Andersen, European general counsel for Microsoft.

These matters relate to a 2004 ruling by the European Commission requiring Microsoft to provide details of its protocols so that others could develop interoperable products. Microsoft had lodged appeals with the European Court of First Instance, Europe's second highest court.

The company still faces the prospect of additional fines covering the remaining period during which it had not complied with the ruling.

One interpretation of Andersen's comment is that Microsoft hopes dropping the outstanding appeals now will encourage European authorities to be more lenient when calculating those fines.