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Microsoft loses European competition appeal
Monday 17th September 2007, by Daniel King
Software giant Microsoft has lost its appeal against a record fine imposed by the European Commission after a long-running dispute of competition rules.
The European Court of First Instance today upheld the 497 million (£343 million) fine imposed in 2004, when the court found Microsoft guilty of abusing its position in the market to squeeze out competitors.
In 2004, the European Commission found that Microsoft was guilty of freezing out rivals in server software and products such as media players. The ruling ordered Microsoft to share information with other rival companies. Microsoft has two months to appeal the new verdict.
A court statement said: "The court criticises, in particular, the obligation imposed on Microsoft to allow the monitoring trustee, independently of the commission, access to its information, documents, premises and employees and also to the source code of its relevant products."
Microsoft's revenues for the first three months of 2007 reached $14.4 billion (£7.2 billion).
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