BELGIUM: Microsoft's top lawyer says he believes there had been a breakthrough in the software company's dispute with the European Commission

Record ID: 452012

  • Title: BELGIUM: Microsoft's top lawyer says he believes there had been a breakthrough in the software company's dispute with the European Commission
  • Date: 1st April 2006
  • Summary: (BN16) BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (MARCH 31, 2006) (REUTERS) JOURNALISTS IN FRONT OF BUILDING WHERE MICROSOFT PRIVATE HEARING TOOK PLACE EU FLAG
  • Embargoed: 16th April 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVA93417MFEJDOFPZPI7VAZBVYO6
  • Story Text: Microsoft's top lawyer said on Friday (March 31) he believed there had been a breakthrough in the software company's dispute with the European Commission at a hearing into the antitrust fines ordered by Brussels.
    "As I said in the hearing, I believe that we have had a breakthrough," Brad Smith told reporters at the end of the two-day hearing.
    He said Microsoft now had "greater clarity" regarding the antitrust case, which would help to bring about a solution.
    "Obviously the hearing has concluded. As I said inside the hearing room I felt we had a breakthrough. I was very encouraged when professor Barret, the trustee for the case, as you know, presented his plan to move forward. I said in the hearing room that I regarded this as the single most positive and constructive step that has been taken in this matter since december. It finally gives us the kind of specificity and clarity that we need in order to work in a constructive way and move all of these issues forward," Smith said.
    The EU's executive, which accuses Microsoft of blocking competition by withholding information on its business software, said it would study comments made at the hearing and documents filed before deciding whether to proceed with the fines.
    A lawyer for Novell software company called on Microsoft to comply with the EU competition rules.
    "As far as we are concerned they have had clarity since March 2004, they have to comply with the decision. The decision is very clear. I have to go back. (q: no breakthrough then?) If think if Microsoft is going to comply that's a breakthrough," he said.
    Microsoft's Smith said the company now had "greater clarity" on the antitrust case, helping to bring about a solution.
    Rivals of Microsoft said on Friday they heard nothing new from the software giant.
    Thomas Vinje, lawyer for the European Committee for Interoperable Systems which groups companies such as IBM, told reporters earlier in the day that Microsoft's defence was "still not good enough".
    In the two-day hearing on the fines run by independent arbitrators behind closed doors, Microsoft spent most of Thursday putting across its case.
    "No, no result. The commission will have to consider everything for several weeks and then they'll decide. That's how it works," said Vinje.
    The Commission, which acts as Europe's top antitrust body, found in 2004 that Microsoft abused its dominance of its Windows operating system to muscle competitors out of the market.
    It fined Microsoft almost half a billion euros and ordered it to share information with rivals so they can make server software that runs as smoothly with Windows as Microsoft's own.
    Despite 12,000 pages of documentation that Microsoft has submitted spelling out how its software works, the Commission says rivals still did not have the right information and it wants to fine the company until it complies.
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