Microsoft clashes on EC anti-trust ruling
March 17, 2005
The European Commission has dismissed Microsoft’s attempts to implement last year’s landmark anti-trust case in Europe, and has told the company to rewrite its approach.
Microsoft was told to license to its rivals 80 communication protocols, which would allow them to develop abd improve the inter-operability between their servers and Windows PCs.
However, developer companies had complained that Microsoft made accessing technical data difficult, and also that they were being pushed into “all in one” licensing agreements, which meant being charged to licence areas unrelated to the actual software development. Overall licensing royalties were also deemed unfair.
The commission is also believed to have found Microsoft excluding open source developers “without justification”.
Microsoft stated that they intend to discuss with the matters raised over the next few days, in order to comply with the previous ruling.