A landmark court ruling which last year backed the European Commission"s last competition action against Microsoft may not be as helpful in its current action as has been widely thought, according to a competition lawyer.
The commission"s 2004 decision to fine Microsoft €497m was backed by the Court of the First Instance of the European Communities (CFI) and the judgment is widely regarded as having strengthened the commission"s hand for cases it has subsequently launched. But an analysis of the decision by competition lawyer Adrian Wood of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM, found that the case offers fewer comforts to the commission than many have assumed.