Top judge steps up pressure on Microsoft

A senior European Union judge has raised the stakes in Microsoft's battle with the European Commission by indicating that any future Commission order for the software group to "unbundle" Windows could take immediate effect.
The Commission has consistently emphasised its intention to find Microsoft guilty of abusing its dominant position and is likely to take a final decision in the first half of next year - unless the two sides reach a deal beforehand.
Since a final verdict by the EU court system could take four to five years, the court's reluctance to suspend any Commission sanction in the interim would be of crucial importance. A US court order for Microsoft to "unbundle" Internet Explorer from Windows in the 1990s never took effect and was swiftly reversed.
Greater reluctance by the EU court system to grant a "stay" to suspend a negative decision would strengthen the Commission in negotiations - and present Microsoft with an immediate threat to its business. In a Financial Times interview, Bo Vesterdorf, the president of the EU's Court of First Instance, said such requests had to meet "criteria [that] by their nature are very difficult to comply with".
If the Commission rules against Microsoft, the company is expected to appeal ,the case to the court and ask Mr Vesterdorf, as head of the court, to grant a temporary stay.
Microsoft currently emphasises its efforts to find an understanding with the 'Commission. Mario Monti, Europe's competition commissioner, has called for
Microsoft to unbundle its Media Player from the rest of Windows, provide information to rivals in the server market, and pay a fine.
"Those who apply for such a suspension of immediate effects will have to prove first of all that they have a reasonable, well-founded case and secondly that there is urgency," said Mr Vesterdorf. "This set of rules is used very much in other areas [from cases in which companies cite such irreparable harm], but is perhaps not very well suited for these sort of cases."
Mr Vesterdorf acknowledged that with "a sufficient degree of urgency and a sufficiently good case", companies can still present their case for the stay. But he emphasised that such a course would be difficult. Similar measures have been granted, notably in a 1989 decision in which the European Court of Justice suspended a Commission decision to force broadcasters to give listing magazines their programme details.