BRUSSELS, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. software giant Microsoft Corp., said it would not appeal a European court's ruling on antitrust matters, ending its nine-year dispute with regulators.
Under its agreement reached with European Union regulators, Microsoft agreed to cut royalty charges on licenses the regulators forced the company to supply so competitors could hook into Microsoft's Windows operating system easily, the Wall Street Journal reported. Competitors will pay a one-time fee for the intellectual property -- except patents -- necessary to work with a Windows version used on business servers.
The decision of Microsoft, headquartered in Redmond, Wash., not to appeal, announced Monday in a news release, makes law the EU's position on monopoly abuses, and validates the EU's power to force a dominant company such as Microsoft to share intellectual property with competitors.
The Court of First Instance, Europe's second-highest tribunal, ruled in September that antitrust regulators were correct in condemning Microsoft for withholding technical information that would allow competitors' products to work with computers using Windows OS, and for bundling a media player inside its operating system.
Still to be worked out is how much Microsoft will pay in fines.
