Regulators back EC Microsoft ruling
InfoWorld | at | by Mike
Antitrust regulators from the 15 European Union (EU) countries have unanimously backed the European Commission's negative ruling against Microsoft, a Commission spokeswoman said Monday.
In less than two weeks, barring a last-minute settlement, the Commission will declare Microsoft an abusive monopolist, impose a fine anywhere between $100 million and $1 billion and order the company to make fundamental changes to the way it sells software in Europe.
An appeal of a negative ruling to the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg would take at least three years to conclude. In the meantime, the Court may turn down Microsoft's certain request to suspend the remedies until after the appeal, forcing the company to change the way it does business in Europe almost immediately.
Microsoft doesn't break out its sales figures for each region it operates in, but analysts believe the EU accounts for just under 30 percent of the roughly $10 billion in revenues it generates from Windows worldwide.