Microsoft's EU antitrust challenge set for April

Microsoft Corp.’s legal challenge to the EU’s 2004 antitrust ruling will be heard by the European Court of First Instance on April 24-28, the court said yesterday.

The court – the second-highest in the European Union – stressed that the dates for the hearing were provisional and could still be changed.

In March 2004, the EU executive levied a record €497m fine against Microsoft, ordered it to share code with rivals and offer an unbundled version of Windows without the Media Player software for what the court saw as an abuse of the company’s dominant position in the industry.

Last month, the European Commission threatened to fine Microsoft up to €2m a day backdated to December 15 for failing to obey, saying the software giant was proving intransigent about sharing data with competitors.

Microsoft retorted that the EU Commission was trying to undermine its Windows operating system with ever-more-drastic demands for technological transparency, and that it would contest the measure under EU law.

It claims the EU demands on opening up its software specifications would also open the door to the cloning of the company’s core product, the ubiquitous Windows operating system.

The company has until February 15 to formally answer the complaint.