Microsoft to EU: Thank You for Fining Us 497 Million Euros! Thank You!

Microsoft reacted immediately to the ruling of the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg that dismissed its appeal and decided to support the 23 March 2004 antitrust decision of the European Commission against the Redmond company. The Court underlined the fact that the EU antitrust regulators were right in assessing both the gravity and the period in which Microsoft had abused its Windows monopoly. Additionally, the 497 million euros financial penalty ordered against the company three years ago remained unchanged.

Immediately after the issuing of the Judgment of the Court of First Instance (Grand Chamber), Brad Smith, Microsoft's Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary held a brief meeting with the press. As Smith is leading the Redmond company's Department of Legal and Corporate Affairs, all legal work for government, industry and community affairs activities falls under his responsibility. In the initial statement, Smith revealed that the legal team did not have the time to go over the judgment, which is a lengthy document of almost 250 pages.

"It is nonetheless clear that the Court has agreed with the Commission on a number of the Commission's points," Smith stated. "And I did want to simply start by expressing out gratitude to this court, for the lengthy consideration that it gave to these issues. These are obviously complicated and important topics, and we appreciate all of the objective and thorough work that went into the decision that was issued today. We appreciate the Court's judgment on the Trustee issue, and on the monitoring mechanism, an issue were the Court agreed with us. An yet I would be the first to acknowledge that I don't think that anyone would say that that is the most important part of this case or this decision."

Smith refused to comment the judgment any further, until the Microsoft legal team would have had the necessary time to go over the entire decision. The company has scheduled another press conference this afternoon, and Smith will deliver Microsoft's official position at that time.

Also reacting to the conclusions of the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg, EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, European Union's top competition official, commented that backing the antitrust ruling delivered against Microsoft in 2004 is a warning for all companies abusing their dominant market position in Europe.