EU Official, Microsoft lawyer differ on antitrust
Reuters | at | by Mike
A top European Commission competition official sparred with a lawyer for software giant Microsoft on Thursday on the issue of how to keep markets open without dampening innovation. The Commission has accused Microsoft of competing unfairly, and the U.S. courts have found it holds and has abused a durable monopoly.
The lawyer, who said he was giving his own views rather than those of his company, questioned an antitrust doctrine which makes companies share with rivals a facility deemed essential to a market. The lawyer said in the discussion at a small workshop at a conference of corporate counsels in Barcelona that the rivals should instead invent an alternative.