End European case now, says Microsoft

Microsoft's European chief wants the company's antitrust battle with the European Commission over by the end of the year, following last weekend's landmark ruling in the US.

Speaking at Gartner's Symposium in Cannes, Jean-Phillipe Courtois, Microsoft's president for EMEA, said that Judge Kollar-Kotelly's ruling was an important milestone for the company.

"It's been a big learning experience for us over the past four or five years," he declared.

The nine US states that objected to the original settlement have until 8 November to lodge an appeal against the decision, but Courtois hopes that the Commission will see this as a benchmark ruling in its case against Microsoft and act swiftly to bring the dispute to an end.

"We would like to close the case before the end of the calendar year. We have tried to co-operate as much as we can. Now is the right time for the European Commission to decide how it wants to handle the case," he said.

But when pressed, Courtois admitted that he is not hopeful of the case ending within two months.

The Commission is investigating Microsoft's actions in promoting its server business, and the bundling of Media Player with the Windows operating system.

The case is in its final stages and a spokeswoman told vnunet.com yesterday: "It is different from a factual point of view to the case in the US. We have our own rules to uphold."

Microsoft has claimed that it is trying to comply with any ruling in advance by disclosing information and releasing communication protocols.

With the growing move towards standards-based computing, this is part of the company's strategy anyway, Courtois argued.

"If you look at the big bet we are making it is all about interoperability. If our vision doesn't execute on that then we will be failing miserably," he said.