After nine long years, Microsoft agrees access

After a competition dispute that dragged on for nine years, Microsoft has agreed to allow access to its technology following the court ruling last month, a move the European Commission says will lead to more innovation in the software market.

Announcing the move, Neelie Kroes, Competition Commissioner, said she had been “in almost daily contact” with Microsoft head Steve Ballmer, over the past two to three weeks. The end result said Kroes, is that the company will now take the necessary steps to comply with the Commission’s 2004 ruling to open access to its work group server operating systems.

After Kroes made her announcement Microsoft published a statement saying it would not contest the September court ruling and adding, “[Microsoft] will continue to work closely with the Commission and the industry to ensure a flourishing and competitive environment for information technology in Europe and around the world.”

The industry group, the European Committee for Interoperable Systems welcomed Kroes’s announcement. Thomas Vinje, counsel for the organisation said it is, “an important milestone in efforts to address Microsoft’s continuing abuse of its dominant position. He added “It is vital the Commission ensures compliance.”

Kroes said Microsoft would make three substantial changes. First, software developers will be able to access and use interoperability information; second, the royalties payable for this information will be reduced to a nominal one-off payment of €10,000; third, the royalties for a worldwide licence including patents will be reduced from 5.95 percent to 0.4 percent, a huge reduction over the royalties Microsoft levied previously.

Microsoft has given an undertaking that in any agreements between third party developers it will guarantee the completeness and accuracy of the information provided. Such agreements will be enforceable before the High Court in London, and will provide for effective remedies, including damages for third party developers in the event of a breach.

The Commission claims these changes, “mean that open source competitors [….] will be able to provide businesses with competitive, innovative alternatives to Microsoft work group server products, knowing that they are fully interoperable with Microsoft's Windows desktop operating system.”

Kroes said, “I welcome that Microsoft has finally undertaken concrete steps to ensure full compliance with the 2004 decision. It is regrettable that Microsoft has only complied after a considerable delay, two court decisions, and the imposition of daily penalty payments.”

She added, “The measures that the Commission has insisted upon will benefit computer users by bringing competition and innovation back to the server market.”

Microsoft has a 95 percent market share on the desktop operating system market, and in excess of 70 percent of the market for work group server operating systems. Open source work group server products are the only alternative, and are thus the only possible challenge to Microsoft’s dominance.

Work group server operating systems running on central network computers provide services such as file and printer sharing, security and user identity management.