[Ecommerce] EU court upholds sanctions against Microsoft

[Manon Ress]

From: Pedro Moniz
Masters in Law (LL.M.) candidate, class of 2004/2005
Queen Mary, University of London


http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-12/22/content_2369712.htm
EU court upholds sanctions against Microsoft

www.chinaview.cn 2004-12-22 22:47:01

     BRUSSELS, Dec. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- A Luxembourg-based European
courton Wednesday turned down an appeal by Microsoft to delay sanctions
imposed on the software giant by the European Commission (EC), the
executive arm of the European Union (EU).

     The European Court of First Instance found Microsoft had not shown
it could suffer irreparable damage as a result of sanction simposed in
March after the EC found it had abusively wielded its Windows operating
system monopoly.

     "Microsoft's application for interim measures is therefore
dismissed in its entirety," the court said in a statement.

     The EC had demanded that Microsoft change its business practices
and levied a fine of 497 million euros (about 613 million US dollars),
the biggest ever imposed by the EC in an anti-trust case.

     Microsoft demanded the sanctions to be suspended until the case
receives a civil court hearing.

     Welcoming the court ruling, the EC said in a statement that the
judgement means the sanctions "become effective immediately."

     Implementation of the EC's decision "will not only benefit
consumers of computer products in terms of choice of media players and
choice of work-group servers, but will also stimulate innovation," the
statement said.
     The European Court of First Instance is the EU's second-highest
court and Microsoft could still appeal to the highest EU court, the
European Court of Justice.
--
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, DC
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036, USA
Tel.:  1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176

Consumer Project on Technology in Geneva
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Tel: +41 22 791 6727