EU tells US to butt out of Microsoft ruling

 

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By Simon Aughton

Posted on 20 Sep 2007 at 11:19

Europe's competition commissioner has lambasted a US Justice Department official for criticising the action the EU has taken to curb Microsoft's anti-competitive practices.

Neelie Kroes said the comments by the assistant attorney general for Antitrust, Thomas O Barnett, were "totally unacceptable".

"The European Commission does not pass judgement on rulings by US courts and we expect the same degree of respect from US authorities on rulings by EU courts," she said. "It is absolutely not done."

In a statement earlier this week Barnett said that the Department of Justice (DoJ) is concerned the EU's penalties would "chill" innovation and discourage competition, harming consumers.

"In the United States, the antitrust laws are enforced to protect consumers by protecting competition, not competitors," Barnett said. "In the absence of demonstrable consumer harm, all companies, including dominant firms, are encouraged to compete vigourously.

"US courts recognise the potential benefits to consumers when a company, including a dominant company, makes unilateral business decisions, for example to add features to its popular products or license its intellectual property to rivals, or to refuse to do so."

DoJ settlement

The DoJ reached its own settlement with Microsoft in 2004, prohibiting Microsoft from using contracts with PC makers to force them to exclude rivals' software while requiring it to provide information to allow interoperability of competitors' software.

The European Commission decision of 2004, ratified by the Court of First Instance this week, requires Microsoft to release a version of Windows stripped of the Media Player software.

That version - XP N - has sold fewer than 2,000 copies but it is possible that all copies of Windows will ship without the player, which is in any case available free from the Microsoft website.

Microsoft is also obliged to release code for software that will enable rival companies' products to better integrate with Microsoft's server applications. Microsoft says that this code is valuable intellectual property and should be protected.

Microsoft has not yet said whether it will make one last appeal to the EU's highest court.