Decision today on Microsoft appeal

Published on Monday 17 September 2007 01:11

A EUROPEAN Union court will decide today whether Microsoft abused its near-monopoly position on the world's one billion computers and servers to push smaller competitors out of the marketplace.

The European Commission ruled in 2004 that Microsoft used its Windows operating system, running on 95 per cent of the world's computers and servers, to choke off competition from rival makers of server software and streaming media software.

Microsoft challenged that decision, asking a special 13-judge Grand Chamber of the Court of First Instance to throw out the commission's finding. It said the commission was interfering its right to design software as it saw fit. The court will focus on five aspects of the commission's 2004 decision.