The European Court of First Instance (CFI) has upheld
the European Commission's 2004 decision and fine of £497m
againstMicrosoft for anti-competitivepractices.
The CFI agreed with the Commission's reasoning that Microsoft
had abused its dominant position in two ways, namely refusing to
supply its competitors with so-called "interoperability
information", and bundling the Windows-client PC operating system
and Windows Media Player.
The court rejected Microsoft's claims that the degree of
interoperability required by the commission was intended to enable
competing workgroup server operating systems to function in every
respect like a Windows system and, accordingly, to enable
Microsoft's competitors to clone or reproduce its products.
The CFI said, "The commission was correct to conclude that the
workgroup server operating systems of Microsoft's competitors must
be able to interoperate with Windows domain architecture on an
equal footing with Windows operating systems if they are to be
capable of being marketed viably."
Microsoft has two months to decide whether to appeal this
judgement to the European Court of Justice.
Speaking on the ruling
Brad Smith, senior vice-president, general counsel, corporate
secretary, legal & corporate affairs, said, "We are 100%
committed to comply with the CFI."
The decision should be good news for users who wish to connect
Linux or other systems to Windows-based networks. Smith said, "With
respect to interoperability, a lot of work has been done, some
progress has been made, but there some issues that remain open. It
has not been an easy process to publish the technical documentation
required by the commission. I believes today we have an accurate
technical specification that is being used by licensees, and I hope
more licensees will use this in the months ahead."
The commission also questioned the licence fee Microsoft charged
for licensing these technical documents, which are needed by
third-party software companies who need to develop links into
products such as Windows and Microsoft Exchange. It remains to be
seen whether the commission will accept the licence fee Microsoft
currently charges. The charge is currently 1% of the value of
European software sales of any product offerning Microsoft
interoperability, based on the licenced documentation.
Matthew Szulik, chairman and CEO of Red Hat, said, "In our
business, interoperability information is critically important and
cannot simply be withheld to exclude all competition."