The date is that of the last working day before Bo Versterdorf
retires. Versterdorf is President of the Court of First Instance
and the presiding judge in the 13 judge Grand Chamber of that
Court, which is deciding the Microsoft case.
The European Commission found Microsoft guilty of antitrust
offences in 2004 and fined it €497 million. It said that Microsoft
failed to allow small business server software makers the chance to
compete, and unfairly included media software in its operating
system, thus stifling competition in that market.
Microsoft appealed the ruling, and that appeal is heard by the
Court of First Instance. It is the highest court that can make a
finding of fact. If either side wants to appeal September's verdict
to the European Court of Justice it will have to be on a point of
law.
The ruling could come earlier than 17th September, but the Court
breaks for over a month until the end of August.
The Commission has hit the company with further fines for
non-compliance with its 2004 order. It fined Microsoft a further
€281 million for non-compliance in 2006.
The Court of First Instance spent a week in April hearing
Microsoft's appeal against the landmark Commission decision.
The Commission preceded that hearing by hinting that further
action might be necessary against Microsoft. "In the 50 years of
European antitrust policy, it's the first time we've been
confronted with a company that has failed to comply with an
antitrust decision," Commission spokesman on competition issues
Jonathan Todd said in March.
