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Walsh, Ann --- "Microsoft v Commission: Interoperability, Emerging Standards and Innovation in the Software Industry" [2010] ELECD 481; in Rubini, Luca (ed), "Microsoft on Trial" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Microsoft on Trial

Editor(s): Rubini, Luca

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848442443

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: Microsoft v Commission: Interoperability, Emerging Standards and Innovation in the Software Industry

Author(s): Walsh, Ann

Number of pages: 36

Extract:

9. Microsoft v Commission:
interoperability, emerging standards
and innovation in the software
industry
Ann Walsh

1. INTRODUCTION

In September 2007 the Court of First Instance (CFI) delivered its
judgment1 on Microsoft's appeal of the European Commission's 2004
Decision. Following a long investigation, Microsoft was found guilty
of infringing Article 82 EC,2 by abusing its dominant position in two
ways `first by refusing to supply work group server interoperability
information to its rivals, and secondly by tying its streamed media
player Windows Media Player (WMP) to its Windows PC operating
system. The remedy imposed involved a record fine3 on Microsoft and
an order to end the abuses within specified timescales4 by supplying
the required interoperability information5 and a version of Windows
without WMP.6
After a controversial Commission Decision, the competition, intellec-
tual property (IP) and software worlds awaited the CFI's Microsoft judg-
ment with great excitement, aware of its potential to reshape the thorny
area defined by this intersection. Many factors contributed to this contro-
versy, including the uncertainties surrounding Article 82 EC, the unparal-



1 Case T-201/04 Microsoft v Commission [2007] ECR II-3601 (hereinafter

`CFI judgment').
2 Commission Decision 2007/53/EC of 24 March 2004 [2007] OJ L32/23

(hereinafter `the Decision').
3 Decision, para. 1080.
4 Decision, paras 1010, 1017.
5 Decision, para. 999.
6 Decision, para. 1011.



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 Microsoft v Commission: the software industry 283

leled power of Microsoft, and the differing US7 and European perspec-
tives on the ...