Microsoft Bows To EU Court’s Ruling

On October 22, 2007, Microsoft Corporation announced that it would not appeal the September 17 decision of the Court of First Instance of the European Union, ending a long-running battle between European antitrust regulators and the software maker. Microsoft’s decision to forego further appeals establishes as final a 2004 decision of the European Commission that levied a € 497 million ($613 million) fine on the company and required it to license its intellectual property to competing software developers and to offer for sale in Europe a version of the Windows operating system without Windows Media Player software.

At a recent breakfast panel co-sponsored by Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, Clifford Chance, and Stafford Publications, Inc., and held at Cooley’s Palo Alto office, a group of experts—including members of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition, American and European antitrust practitioners, a noted antitrust academic, and the General Counsel of a major