European Commission Ensures Compliance with 2004 Decision against Microsoft

 The European Commission stated today that Microsoft had agreed to comply with its obligations under the 2004 Commission antitrust decision — the terms of which require Microsoft to provide information allowing third party developers of work group server operating systems to develop products that interoperate with the Windows desktop operating system.

"I welcome that Microsoft has finally undertaken concrete steps to ensure full compliance with the 2004 Decision," said Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. "It is regrettable that Microsoft has only complied after a considerable delay, two court decisions, and the imposition of daily penalty payments. However, the measures that the Commission has insisted upon will benefit computer users by bringing competition and innovation back to the server market.”

Microsoft has agreed to three substantial changes to bring them into compliance with the 2004 decision. First, "open source" software developers will be able to access and use the interoperability information. Second, the royalties payable for this information will be reduced to a nominal one-off payment of 10,000 euros. Third, the royalties for a worldwide license including patents will be reduced from 5.95 percent to 0.4 percent - less than 7 percent of the royalty originally claimed.

MORE

EU NewsBrief is an electronic publication issued regularly by the Delegation of the European Commission to the United States. To receive updates on specific issue areas, click on this link.