Ending its long-standing battle with European courts, Microsoft agreed on Monday to bow to a 2004 European Commission ruling and share interoperability information with open-source software developers.
European commissioner for competition policy Nellie Kroes hailed the agreement as “a victory for consumers” and said the resulting changes would “profoundly affect the software industry”.
At the same time, she chided the software giant for the costly litigious war it had waged to maintain an unfair competitive advantage over rival companies. “It is regrettable that Microsoft has only complied after a considerable delay, two court decisions, and the imposition of daily penalty payments,” she said. “However, the measures that the Commission has insisted upon will benefit computer users by bringing competition and innovation back to the server market.”
Microsoft will now provide access to interoperability information relating to its networking protocols and will charge a one-off fee of 10,000 Euros ($14,308 USD) for the information; royalties for global licenses including patents will be reduced from 5.95% to 0.4%.
This brings the company into compliance with a 2004 European Commission ruling which also fined Microsoft $613 million (USD) for anti-competitive practices.
Microsoft has now agreed not to pursue any further appeals to that ruling.
Keen to avoid being seen as coming off second-best in a bruising legal confrontation that lasted a total of seven years, Microsoft said in a statement, “We have undertaken a constructive discussion with the Commission and have now agreed on those additional steps.”
