EU Tentatively Approves Settlement

The European Commission (EC), which handles competition enforcement for the European Union (EU), plans to approve a modified version of Microsoft’s proposed settlement to two antitrust investigations, subject to market testing and comments.

The investigations, launched in early 2008, address unfair competition in the browser market stemming from Microsoft’s bundling Internet Explorer (IE) with Windows and interoperability between third-party software and certain high-volume Microsoft software, such as the Office suite. In Jan. 2009, the EC launched a statement of objections in the browser investigation, indicating that it was considering sanctions.

In June 2009, Microsoft proposed a settlement to both investigations. For the browser investigation, Microsoft offered to deliver a ballot screen, which would let end users select which browser they wanted to use, to all Windows users in Europe via Windows Update. It also promised not to retaliate against OEMs for promoting and bundling other browsers alongside or in place of IE. For the interoperability investigation, Microsoft issued an Interoperability Undertaking with commitments to publish and license certain information and intellectual property that will aid interoperability with its products.