EU drops Microsoft browser charges

[December 16, 2009]  BRUSSELS (AP) -- The European Union said Wednesday it is dropping antitrust charges against Microsoft Corp. after the company agreed to give Windows users a choice of up to 12 other Web browsers.

Under the terms of the deal with regulators, Microsoft will avoid further EU fines if it provides a pop-up screen that lets European users -- from March -- replace Microsoft's Internet Explorer or add another browser such as Mozilla's Firefox, or Google's Chrome.

This will also allow computer manufacturers to ship PCs without Internet Explorer in Europe.

"Millions of European consumers will benefit from this decision by having a free choice about which Web browser they use," said EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.

"Such choice will not only serve to improve people's experience of the Internet now, but also act as an incentive for Web browser companies to innovate and offer people better browsers in the future," Kroes added.

Microsoft has been warned, though, that it can be fined up to 10 percent of yearly global turnover without regulators having to prove their case if the company doesn't stick to this commitment for the next five years.

The deal ends over a decade of EU antitrust action against the world's biggest software company that has already paid euro1.7 billion in fines.

In January, the EU charged Microsoft with monopoly abuse for tying its browser, Internet Explorer, to the Windows operating system software used on most desktop computers -- this, they said, was an "artificial distribution advantage" that rivals didn't have.

The EU said Monday that a pop-up choice screen would eliminate those concerns when it is downloaded as an automatic update to all users of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 in Europe who have Internet Explorer set as their default browser. Other users will be asked if they want it.

The choice screen will list the 12 most-widely used Web browsers running on Windows -- listing five prominently. Users can pick and download one or several of them, choosing from Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla's Firefox, Opera, AOL, Maxthon, K-Meleon, Flock, Avant Browser, Sleipnir and Slim Browser.

Some 100 million computers will likely display the screen by mid-March and around 30 million new computers will show it over the next five years, the EU said.

People can keep Internet Explorer if they want -- but they will for the first time be exposed to other browsers, providing a massive new audience to many smaller browser makers.

The choice of browsers will be updated every six months on the basis of several independent sources of market share information.

Microsoft will report back regularly to the European Commission, starting in six months' time, on how the rollout of the screen is going -- and could make changes if the EU asks. The EU is also able to review the entire deal at the end of 2011.

Microsoft will also provide more information to help software developers make products compatible with Windows, Windows Server, Office, Exchange and SharePoint and will publish what the EU says is an "improved version" of an offer that Microsoft first made in July.

The EU says it has an antitrust investigation still open into whether Microsoft is holding back some of the key data that developers need to make products that work with its market-leading software.

Regulators said they welcomed Microsoft's move but that it was still "informal" and wouldn't shut down its own probe. But they offered some hope saying they would "carefully monitor the impact" of the deal on the market and take the results into account for their own case.

[Associated Press; By AOIFE WHITE]

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