EU: Microsoft may lose case but win time on appeal

As soon as the ruling is issued, the US software giant will go to court and thus be assured of months of delay.

On Monday, a panel of EU states recommended a record fine of 497 million euros ($613.5 million) against Microsoft, an EU member state source said. A fine that size would exceed the 462 million euro penalty imposed on Hoffmann-La Roche AG in 2001 for being the ringleader of a vitamin cartel.

The entire Commission is expected to order the fine on Wednesday.

Competition Commissioner Mario Monti told a news conference last week the full Commission was set to act on Wednesday against Microsoft, including remedies and a fine.

The Commission will order the company to sell a version of its operating system without Windows Media Player and to encourage computer makers to provide other audiovisual software. It must also license information at a reasonable rate to make the low-level servers of rivals, used for printing and file services, more compatible with Windows desktop machines.

But as Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said last week, soon after settlement negotiations ended in failure: ‘‘Today is just another step in what could be a long process’’.

Microsoft has always made maximum use of courts to assert its rights and this case will be no exception, experts say.

‘‘There are enormous possibilities open to Microsoft to buy time,’’ said David Wood, an antitrust lawyer for Howrey Simon. The company will appeal the Commission ruling and ask the Court of First Instance to suspend remedies until the underlying case is decided. Until the court decides that first question, the remedies are suspended.

—(Reuters)