European Court Rejects Microsoft Appeal

European Court Rejects Microsoft Appeal

The European Court of First Instance on Monday rejected an appeal by Microsoft to annul the antitrust decision by the European Commission, upholding a fine of 497 million euros ($689 million). The court agreed with the European Commission that Microsoft (MSFT) abused its dominant position by failing to make its products compatible with those of rivals, and by bundling software products together with its core operating system software. The court rejected “Microsoft’s claims that the degree of interoperability required by the commission is intended in reality to enable competing work group server operating systems to function in every respect like a Windows system and, accordingly, to enable Microsoft’s competitors to clone or reproduce its products.”