Court Of First Instance Confirms Microsoft Violated EU Competition Rules

Today, September 17th, the Court of First Instance issued its long awaited judgment in the Microsoft case. The judgment basically confirms the Commission’s 2004 decision which found that Microsoft had abused its dominant position within the meaning of Article 82 of the EU Treaty:

1. by withholding from competitors information required to permit interoperability between the Windows PC and server operating systems and other operating systems; and
2. by bundling Media Player with the PC operating system.

The amount of the fine imposed by the Commission (approximately US$ 700 million) remains unchanged. The Court, however, annulled the appointment of a monitoring trustee charged with the implementation of the interoperability remedy.