The week-long anti-competition hearing involving Microsoft and the European Commission has finished – with neither side willing to predict the outcome.<\/p>\n
\nMicrosoft is appealing against a 2004 ruling when Brussels told it to change how it sells its Media Player software and fined it 497m euros ($613m; \u00a3344m).<\/p>\n
The Court of First Instance may not deliver a verdict until early 2007.<\/p>\n
Defeat could damage the Commission’s authority as a competition regulator or Microsoft’s future business model.<\/p>\n
Microsoft lawyers spent much of the hearing arguing that its fine should be rescinded and that it should not have to produce a version of its Windows operating system without the Media Player software.<\/p>\n
They also argued against the 2004 ruling’s stipulation that Microsoft should share information about Windows with rival software companies.<\/p>\n
The Commission’s advocates told the court that the fine was needed as a deterrent and that Microsoft was abusing its market leading position in the desktop software market to stifle competition.<\/p>\n
No predictions<\/p>\n
Both sides left the court saying the case was too close to call.<\/p>\n
“It would be a mistake to try and predict the outcome and I won’t try to do so,” said Microsoft lawyer Brad Smith.<\/p>\n
Commission counterpart Cecilio Madero said he wouldn’t “speculate about the end result”.<\/p>\n
When a verdict is eventually produced, Microsoft would still have the chance to make a further appeal to the European Court of Justice.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the Commission is threatening the software giant with fines of up to 2m euros a day if it is found to have delayed its compliance with the anti-competition ruling.<\/p>\n
Microsoft has the added headache of the dispute overshadowing one of its most important software launches in years – that of its new operating system, called Vista, and a new suite of business software, Office 2007, due to make a simultaneous consumer debut early next year.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n