Microsoft loses antitrust case in Korea

[Thom Little]

Microsoft Corp. has been ordered by Korean antitrust regulators to pay a fine and make available a version of Windows stripped of its instant messenger and Media Player programs in future sales. The U.S. software giant said it will appeal the ruling.

Putting an end to a review that has dragged on for over four years, the Korean Fair Trade Commission yesterday ruled that Microsoft has broken local competition rules.

The commission said the U.S. software giant abused its market dominance - Windows accounts for 99 percent of operating systems in personal computers used here - when it bundled its MSN Messenger and Media Player application programs onto the popular operating system.

.......

Under the ruling, Microsoft will have to pay a fine of $32 million. Further, the company has to offer two versions of Windows for personal computers, one of them stripped of the messenger and Media Player and the other which comes with the applications but provides links to websites for competing products.



http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/12/08/200512080038.asp

[Selteri]

1. If only our own government would bother to do such a thing NT

[Vidar]

2. With you on that idea.