MARCH 12--A European regulation team is moving toward imposing sanctions against Microsoft, after an internal review concluded that the US software group had breached competition law. The conclusions of the panel allow Mario Monti, European competition commissioner, with the final choice of whether to take action against Microsoft. Monti is said not to have made up his mind, and a decision is not expected until June 2003, at the earliest. A decision to impose tough penalties on Microsoft might spark a political backlash in the USA, where the company settled an antitrust case over similar allegations in 2001.
The European Commission and Microsoft declined to comment. However, people close to the probe, which has been running for four years, said officials on the panel agreed with the broad conclusion of their colleagues on the Microsoft case team. The case team is believed to have concluded that Microsoft broke European competition law by trying to use its dominant position in operating software, through Windows, to win a strong share in markets for servers and video-playing software. However, the panel is understood to have raised concerns over the concessions to be imposed on the US company.
In a draft decision, the case team has recommended that Microsoft provide rivals such as Sun Microsystems with technical information on its servers--large computers used to access the Internet. It also recommends a separation of Media Player, Microsoft's video-playing software, from Windows. Microsoft has strongly opposed both concessions, saying they would damage the company and that they went well beyond the US settlement.
