Fejø, Jens --- "The Microsoft Case: You Reap what you Sow?" [2010] ELECD 477; in Rubini, Luca (ed), "Microsoft on Trial" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Microsoft on Trial

Editor(s): Rubini, Luca

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848442443

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: The Microsoft Case: You Reap what you Sow?

Author(s): Fejø, Jens

Number of pages: 37

Extract:

5. The Microsoft case: you reap what
you sow?
Jens Fejø

1. INTRODUCTION

When Bill Gates, President of Microsoft, declared to members of
Microsoft's sales force in February 1997: `What we are trying to do is
use our server control to do new protocols and lock out Sun and Oracle
specifically . . . Now, I don't know if we'll get to that or not, but that's
what we are trying to do', he was entering a dangerous area of business.
This statement was held against Microsoft by the Commission in its
Decision,1 and by the Court of First Instance (CFI) in its later judgment,2
both finding Microsoft to have violated Article 82 of the EC Treaty.
How this information was leaked is not completely clear, but it certainly
deserves to be highlighted in view of the many arguments Microsoft's
advocates put forward in its defence. These arguments, however, failed
to convince the CFI, which confirmed the Commission's Decision to
impose on Microsoft a fine of more than 497,000,000. This followed
the CFI's affirmation of the Commission's finding that Microsoft abused
its dominant position on two counts. First, by illegally refusing to supply
to competing producers of non-Windows operating systems for certain
servers the protocols necessary to grant interoperability with Windows
operating systems for the same servers and client PCs. Secondly, by tying
or bundling Windows Media Player (WMP) with Windows operating
system. Only the part of the Decision appointing ...