Microsoft v. Commission
European Union Court of Justice
2004 E.C.R. II-4463 (2004)
- Written by Kelli Lanski, JD
Facts
Microsoft (defendant) produced and sold a personal computer (PC) operating system called Windows, which was the dominant operating system in the PC market. Microsoft began selling each Windows computer with Microsoft’s media player, Windows Media Play, automatically installed. The European Commission (the commission) (plaintiff) began proceedings against Microsoft for illegal tying in violation of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), on the basis that Microsoft had illegally tied its media player to its operating system. Given Microsoft’s market power in the operating-systems market, the commission found that including its media player by default effectively foreclosed competition for competitors’ media players. Customers were less likely to seek out alternative products, and other media-player manufacturers could not hope to achieve the level of ubiquity Microsoft enjoyed, even if they preinstalled their players in other companies’ computers. Microsoft appealed, arguing that its media player was not a separate product from its operating system and that competitive media players existed, meaning that competition was not foreclosed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning ()
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