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Microsoft has successfully requested for a suspension of the Commission's proposed remedies, pending the judgement of its appeal. The request was filed with the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg on Friday, June 25.

The Commission is threatening Microsoft with a record fine and forcing the unbundling of Media Player from Windows and opening access to source code. In a statement issued on Sunday, however, Microsoft declares: 'We believe that suspension is in order and is necessary as the remedies will not only hurt Microsoft, they will hurt many other software development companies and web site developers who have built products for the Windows platform. Most importantly, they will also harm consumers by limiting choice and degrading the usability of personal computers.'

Microsoft's main

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argument is that damages should not be inflicted before the appeal is heard. 'Once Microsoft releases software code under this decision,' the statement goes on, 'those intellectual property rights are lost forever, even if the Court grants our appeal. And once Microsoft releases a degraded product without media functionality into the market, you cannot pull the product back. Once IP is published and once products are released, they cannot be taken back.'

The Commission has agreed to Microsoft's request. 'The European Commission has informed the European Court of First Instance that, in the interest of the proper administration of justice, it has decided not to enforce the remedies adopted on March 24 while a Microsoft application for interim measures is being considered,' said the Commission in a statement reported by Reuters.

It was earlier in June that Microsoft appealed the original European Commission ruling.

Microsoft's appeal could take years to go through the European courts, potentially rendering the strongest of the EU penalties - that of untying Windows Media Player from the operating system in order to preserve competition - redundant: the battle for the media player market may well be history by the time any EU judgements come into force.