EU Drops Microsoft Antitrust Case
European regulators have ended their last pending antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. as the U.S. software maker agreed to let Europeans choose from a menu of Web browsers that compete with its Internet Explorer.
The deal announced Wednesday lets Microsoft avert additional fines. It has already paid 1.7 billion euros in EU fines over the past decade.
The agreement, announced in Brussels by the European competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, calls for Microsoft to give Windows users a choice of up to 11 other browsers from competing companies, including Mozilla, Apple and Google.
Users of Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system in Europe who have chosen its Internet Explorer as their default browser will receive in a software update an option to switch to a rival, starting next year.
“Millions of European consumers will benefit from this decision by having a free choice about which Web browser they use,” Ms. Kroes said in a statement.
Neelie Kroes, the European competition commissioner, said the agreement with Microsoft was an "early Christmas present for more than hundreds of millions of Europeans" who would get "effective and unbiased choice" between competing browsers.
Microsoft said it will start sending updates in March to Windows computers in Europe so that when PC users log on, they will see a pop-up screen asking them to pick one or more of 12 Web browsers to download and install. People who buy new PCs will see the screen when they start up for the first time.
For Microsoft, the settlement is a stark contrast to its acrimonious first legal clash with European officials, which resulted in fines of 1.68 billion euros ($2.44 billion) and an order to change some business practices. That case, which lasted nearly a decade, ended in October 2007 when Microsoft dropped its appeal of a commission judgment that it had abused the dominance of Windows to aid its media player and server businesses.
Two months after Microsoft gave up, Opera, a small Norwegian browser maker, filed its complaint over browsers, initiating the second case.
Google, which makes the Chrome browser, and Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, signed on as supporters of Opera’s case. The commission in January said Microsoft’s bundling of Internet Explorer in Windows was harming competition. In July, Microsoft proposed the browser distribution plan that, after adjustment to appease rivals, led to the settlement.
Rival browser makers said the agreement represented a huge opportunity for their own software, which they said would also give Europeans more choice and a better ability to compare browsers.
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