EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes warned Microsoft on Sept. 17 that she expected it to cut its dominant market share to comply with a 2004 European Commission anti-trust ruling. "When we observe a situation where one producer has a share of 95% of the market, it's a monopoly. It's not just a monopoly-like situation," she said.
"You can't say 50% would be right," she said, but added that the Commission, the EU's top competition regulator, expects from Microsoft "a significant drop in market share."
Her comments came hours after the European Court of First Instance, Europe's second-highest court, upheld most of the European Commission's ruling against Microsoft, including a record fine of $690 million. The court confirmed that Microsoft had used its massive share in operating systems in personal computers to crush rivals in other linked markets.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007
