The Party is Over and Microsoft Have Lost: The Key Issues and Ramifications of the Microsoft Judgement

Abstract

The Microsoft Case is a battle between Microsoft, the global software giant, and the European Commission. The Commission found Microsoft to be in breach of Arti-cle 82 of the EC Treaty because of their refusal to sup-ply interoperability information in the Work Group Server (WGS) market and tying in Windows Media Player (WMP) with Windows. Microsoft appealed to the Euro-pean Court of First Instance (CFI) where they lost their nine year battle on 17 September 2007. Microsoft will not be appealing the decision1. The case is a modern day David and Goliath with the Commission coming out the champion. This edition of Law in Brief will look at the main outcomes of the decision and its likely impact in particularly on future clashes of competition law and intellectual property law within the European Union (EU).