EU court to announce Microsoft verdict

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2004

BRUSSELS (AFP) — A European Union court is to issue its initial verdict in a high-profile anti-trust case pitting US software giant Microsoft against the EU's executive commission.

The Court of First Instance, the EU's second-highest court, will deliver a ruling on Microsoft's request for a suspension of enforced product changes and a record fine imposed on it by the commission in March.

The commission slapped the fine of 497 million euros (665 million dollars) after finding that Bill Gates' company had abused its overwhelming dominance in software for personal computers.

Microsoft has since paid the fine into an escrow account pending the outcome of an appeal.

After a five-year investigation, Brussels ruled that the company had to offer a European...