Microsoft to appeal Commission fine
Microsoft has said it is going to appeal the €497m fine set by European regulators for abusing its dominant market position. The company is to seek legal review of the Commission's decision in the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg, according to Brad Smith, senior vice president of Microsoft.
The EU Commission today ordered Microsoft to disclose enough material to rival makers of work group servers so their products have full inter-operability with Windows personal computers and servers and to offer a version of its Windows operating system without Windows Media Player.
In response, Microsoft said today its own proposals to settle the European Commission investigation would have provided more choices for European consumers and more opportunity for software companies than the official decision by the European Commission.
"We worked hard to reach an agreement that would address the European Commission's concerns and still allow us to innovate and improve our products for consumers," said Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft.
"We respect the Commission's authority, but we believe that our settlement offer from last week would have offered far more choices and benefits to consumers."
"We have acted responsibly while seeking to build the best products we can to meet the needs of our customers," Smith said.
"We believe that the Commission's decision would actually reduce consumer choice and hurt European software developers."
He added: "We want to resolve these issues as quickly as possible, and we look forward to the possibility of continuing these discussions as this case moves forward."
