The European Court of First Instance, the European Union's (EU) second-highest court, is expected to rule Monday on Microsoft's appeal against a landmark antitrust decision by the European Commission in 2004.
The ruling can be appealed at the European Court of Justice, the EU's highest court, within a period of two months and 10 days.
The following is a timeline of the major events in the nearly decade-old wrangle between the U.S. software giant and the EU's antitrust watchdog.
-- December 1998: The U.S. software company Sun Microsystems complained to the commission that Microsoft was refusing to supply it with inter-operability information necessary for its server software to inter-operate with Microsoft's dominant PC operating system, triggering the EU's antitrust investigation.
-- March 24, 2004: The commission decided Microsoft had abused its dominant position in the PC operating system market by refusing to supply competitors in the work group server operating system market with interface information necessary for their products to inter-operate with Windows, and had harmed competition through the tying of its Windows Media Player with its Windows PC operating system. Microsoft was fined a record 497 million euros and was ordered to correct its monopolistic conduct.
-- June 15, 2005: Microsoft put Windows XP N, a version without Media Player, on sale.
-- Nov. 10, 2005: The commission found Microsoft had failed to provide its competitors with complete and accurate inter-operability information on reasonable terms, threatening a daily penalty payment of up to two million euros from Dec. 15.
-- April 24-28, 2006: The European Court of First Instance heard Microsoft's challenge to the commission's 2004 antitrust decision.
-- July 12, 2006: The commission decided to impose on Microsoft a new fine of 280.5 million euros for non-compliance with its obligations.
-- March 1, 2007: The commission warned Microsoft of further penalties of up to three million euros per day over its unreasonable pricing of the inter-operability information.
The ruling can be appealed at the European Court of Justice, the EU's highest court, within a period of two months and 10 days.
The following is a timeline of the major events in the nearly decade-old wrangle between the U.S. software giant and the EU's antitrust watchdog.
-- December 1998: The U.S. software company Sun Microsystems complained to the commission that Microsoft was refusing to supply it with inter-operability information necessary for its server software to inter-operate with Microsoft's dominant PC operating system, triggering the EU's antitrust investigation.
-- March 24, 2004: The commission decided Microsoft had abused its dominant position in the PC operating system market by refusing to supply competitors in the work group server operating system market with interface information necessary for their products to inter-operate with Windows, and had harmed competition through the tying of its Windows Media Player with its Windows PC operating system. Microsoft was fined a record 497 million euros and was ordered to correct its monopolistic conduct.
-- June 15, 2005: Microsoft put Windows XP N, a version without Media Player, on sale.
-- Nov. 10, 2005: The commission found Microsoft had failed to provide its competitors with complete and accurate inter-operability information on reasonable terms, threatening a daily penalty payment of up to two million euros from Dec. 15.
-- April 24-28, 2006: The European Court of First Instance heard Microsoft's challenge to the commission's 2004 antitrust decision.
-- July 12, 2006: The commission decided to impose on Microsoft a new fine of 280.5 million euros for non-compliance with its obligations.
-- March 1, 2007: The commission warned Microsoft of further penalties of up to three million euros per day over its unreasonable pricing of the inter-operability information.
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