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Microsoft Meets Deadline in Antitrust Case

Posted on: Wednesday, 1 June 2005, 06:30 CDT

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) met a midnight deadline to submit proposals on how it will comply with a landmark antitrust ruling by the European Union, officials said Wednesday.

Regulators will likely assess the proposal for weeks before deciding whether to impose heavy fines on the software company - up to 5 percent of the company's daily global sales.

"We have submitted the proposals and we are awaiting a response from the EU Commission," said Microsoft spokesman Tom Brookes.

"We will now analyze it very carefully and decide whether it is sufficient or not," EU antitrust spokesman Jonathan Todd said.

Microsoft has to answer complaints from the EU head office that it was not fully complying with last year's ruling against the company, which imposed a fine of euro497 million (US$624 million) and said the company abusively wielded its Windows software domination to lock competitors out of the market.

Both sides had contacts almost up until midnight Tuesday, the EU-imposed deadline following weeks of negotiations. "We received all sorts of documents," Todd said, but refused to discuss the content of the proposal.

Microsoft, too, declined to talk about any aspect of its submitted papers.

Once the Commission has come to a decision on Microsoft's proposal, it will inform the company, which will then have time to rebut. Then the EU member states will be consulted and the full EU executive Commission will decide on the case.

The whole process will likely last until the end of July.

During the last days of talks, negotiations centered on pricing and royalties that can be charged to allow software competitors better dovetail their products with Microsoft's Windows platform.

The orders of the European Commission require Microsoft to share its Windows server code with rivals under certain conditions to make the industry more competitive in the European marketplace.

Last month, the EU's regulators were still not convinced the Windows version the company was forced to produce without Media Player was technically up to standard.

Microsoft said in the past it would give competitors a price break on reviewing source code and more time to decide whether they wanted to license it.

The fine itself is not part of the disagreement between the two sides.

During the last high-level contacts last month, EU antitrust chief Neelie Kroes held talks with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to seek a breakthrough in the five-year standoff.

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On the Net:

http://www.microsoft.com

Source: By RAF CASERT/AP

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