Microsoft claims breakthrough at EU antitrust hearing
InfoWorld | at | by Mike
Microsoft left a two-day antitrust hearing in Brussels Friday claiming it had reached a breakthrough with European regulators in a dispute that may still result in the company being fined up to 2 million ($2.4 million) a day.
But the claim of a breakthrough was exaggerated, according to two other people involved in the closed-door hearing -- one person representing rival software companies and a person close to the European Commission, the European Union's top antitrust authority.
The Commission has accused Microsoft of failing to provide adequate technical details about its Windows operating system. The Commission ruled two years ago that by withholding this information, Microsoft was stifling competition in the software industry. Microsoft maintains that it has provided the information, which would allow competing makers of server systems to design programs that work as well with PCs running Windows as Microsoft's own server software.