EU delays order against Microsoft

The European Commission said on Sunday that it would not enforce a Monday deadline for ordering Microsoft to start selling a modified versio...

The European Commission said on Sunday that it would not enforce a Monday deadline for ordering Microsoft to start selling a modified version of its Windows operating system.

The commission said it would wait until after a European appeals court in Luxembourg has had its say on whether to suspend the order. Last week, Microsoft asked the Court of First Instance for a suspension of the order as it appeals the commission’s antitrust ruling in March.

In the ruling, the European Commission fined Microsoft 497 million euros — currently about $605 million— and ordered it to start selling a new version of Windows, with Media Player removed.

But the commission said it was ‘‘not appropriate’’ to enforce the deadline before the appeals court had decided whether to suspend it for the length of the appeal, which could take several years.

That decision will probably be made in September, and could itself be appealed to the European Court of Justice.

The commission had given Microsoft until July 27 to begin sharing secret information about Windows with rivals to allow them to make products that integrate with the Windows system. That deadline was also lifted on Sunday.

—(The New York Times)