| Microsoft's appeal against the European Commission's decision has begun The European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg has begun considering Microsoft's appeal against the March decision of the European Commission. Bill Gates' corporation was found guilty of exploiting a monopoly position in the software market, and a number of penalties were imposed on it. Microsoft is asking that these sanctions be delayed until the end of the appeal process, which will take at least two years.
The European Commission, as is known, imposed a fine of 500 million euros on the corporation, and also ordered it to disclose technical documentation for its server products to third-party developers and to release an alternative version of the Windows operating system that would not include the Windows Media Player (WMP) multimedia player. It was on the issue of WMP that attention was focused during Friday's meeting of the European Court.
Representatives of Microsoft competitor RealNetworks who participated in the hearing said that the share of their product RealPlayer before 1999, when Microsoft included WMP in Windows, was 80%. Now it has dropped to about 30%. “If somewhere a regulator should intervene, then this is the case,” RealNetworks representatives said.
If Microsoft is forced to provide computer manufacturers with two versions of Windows (with and without WMP), then computer consumers and multimedia producers will have a choice (the latter, in particular, will have an additional incentive to release their products in the format not only of WMP, but also of other programs ). European Commission lawyer Per Hellstrom explained that European regulators are not aiming to determine the winner in the battle between media player manufacturers: Microsoft, RealNetworks or Apple. "We want to level the playing field," he said. “Micrtosoft can win this game, but let this victory be worthy.”
However, Microsoft lawyer Jean-François Bellis believes that releasing a truncated version of Windows (without WMP) will negatively affect the corporation's reputation: "It's like forcing an ice cream manufacturer to release a product with a repulsive smell." The Microsoft-backed Competing Technologies Association has estimated that software and website developers will have to spend 5 billion euros to adapt their products to the new, inferior version of Windows. Therefore, Microsoft says, “preserving the unity of Windows is in the public interest.”
In this regard, Judge Bowe Westerdorf, leading the case, asked representatives of the European Commission to prove that the sanctions imposed would be effective and that they would not harm users and developers. “Will the proposed measures really have an effect? he asked. “Isn’t it inappropriate to take measures whose results you don’t know?” To this, representatives of the European Commission responded that third-party manufacturers already constantly have to modify their designs due to the emergence of updates and fixes for Windows. Regarding the effectiveness of the sanctions imposed on Microsoft, RealNetworks stated the following: “The European Commission, like the US court, recognized that Microsoft is illegally using its monopoly position. At the same time, unlike the American court, the European Commission agreed that it was possible to separate WMP from Windows. This is an important first step to restore choice for consumers and producers of digital media."
After hearing all sides, Judge Bowe Westerdorf said he would make his decision to suspend the sanctions "as quickly as possible." Igor KOROLEV |
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