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March 16, 2004

I guess you just pay the fine then

European Regulators Back Proposed Microsoft Ruling

By PAUL MELLER

RUSSELS, March 15 - European antitrust regulators are united behind Mario Monti, their top antitrust official, on his proposed finding that Microsoft has abused its dominant position in the software market, the European Commission said Monday.

Barring an 11th-hour settlement, the commission, the year-round administrative arm of the European Union, will rule as soon as March 24 that Microsoft is an abusive monopolist and will order the company to change the way it sells its software in its 15 member nations.

A meeting of national regulators broke up around midday on Monday after a brief discussion of the ruling, a commission spokeswoman, Amelia Torres, said. "The member states unanimously backed the commission's draft decision,'' she said.

All that remains is for Mr. Monti, the European Union's commissioner for competition, and his senior officials to determine the size of the fine to impose on the company. The commission can fine a company as much as 10 percent of its global annual sales, in Microsoft's case around $3 billion. People close to the case said the fine might range from 100 million euros to a billion euros - $123 million to $1.23 billion at current exchange rates.

The national regulators are expected to meet or conduct a conference call next Monday to discuss the proposed fine. Two days later, Mr. Monti and the 19 other European commissioners may make a final decision. This can be delayed if the commission thinks that a settlement is within reach.

… The provision concerning Media Player is considered the harder of the two to settle because it questions an essential part of Microsoft's business model that has allowed it to develop highly successful programs like the word-processing package Word and the Outlook e-mail program.

The company argues that Media Player cannot be stripped from Windows because the operating system would not work properly without it.

Posted by P6 at March 16, 2004 09:27 AM
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