Microsoft formally withdrew two remaining appeals against an EU antitrust decision on Wednesday, two days after the U.S. software giant agreed to fully comply.
The company said it informed the European Court of First Instance Wednesday of its decision to give up an appeal against the 280.5 million euros fine imposed by the European Commission in July 2006 for non-compliance with a previous order.
In its landmark decision in 2004, the commission ordered Microsoft to supply competitors in the work group server software market with interface information necessary for their products to interoperate with the company's Windows PC operating system.
But Microsoft was found in failure to comply with the demand and fined 280.5 million euros in total by the commission in 2006.
The company also dropped a second appeal against a commission's order, which required it to license trade secrets on an open source basis.
"We believe it's important at this stage to focus all of our energies on complying with our legal obligations and strengthening our constructive relationship with the European Commission," said Microsoft's European General Counsel Erich Andersen.
Microsoft's retreat came two days after the company made a deal with the commission, promising to fully comply with the 2004 decision, following a setback in its legal resort to the European Court of First Instance.
The Luxembourg-based court ruled against Microsoft by upholding the commission's decision in 2004 on Sept. 17.
On Monday, Microsoft already gave up its right to appeal the court's decision to the European Court of Justice, the EU's highest court.
Source:Xinhua
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