JURIST - Paper Chase: Microsoft hit with record EU antitrust fine

As anticipated yesterday on JURIST's Paper Chase, Microsoft was today hit with a record $613 million (€497.2) fine by the European Commission, which additionaly directed the company to unbundle its media player from its Windows operating system within 90 days and provide code to competitors within 120 days that would allow them to achieve interoperability with Microsoft-powered servers. The official European Commission announcement is here. It reads in part:

Microsoft abused its market power by deliberately restricting interoperability between Windows PCs and non-Microsoft work group servers, and by tying its Windows Media Player (WMP), a product where it faced competition, with its ubiquitous Windows operating system.

This illegal conduct has enabled Microsoft to acquire a dominant position in the market for work group server operating systems, which are at the heart of corporate IT networks, and risks eliminating competition altogether in that market. In addition, Microsoft's conduct has significantly weakened competition on the media player market.

The ongoing abuses act as a brake on innovation and harm the competitive process and consumers, who ultimately end up with less choice and facing higher prices.

For these very serious abuses, which have been ongoing for five and a half years, the Commission has imposed a fine of € 497.2 million.

In a press release, Microsoft said that it would seek legal review of the Commission's decision in the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg, and insisted that its proposed settlement offer (declined last week) would have been better for European consumers. BBC News has more. AFP offers a perspective on the probable legal trajectory of the case.