A plan to appoint extra judges in the EU's Microsoft case may delay and weaken European Commission sanctions against the software giant, critics of the company said yesterday.
The European Commission found in March 2004 that Microsoft competed unfairly against rivals, fined it 497 million ($605 million) and ordered it to change some of its business practices.
But the case has slowed to a crawl at the European Union's Court of First Instance in Luxembourg since June 16th, when the court president proposed transferring it to a special Grand Chamber including senior judges.
President Bo Vesterdorf proposed the move after a controversy over comments by the judge in charge of the case.
Nothing will happen until the court's 25 judges meet to decide whether to accept Mr Vesterdorf's suggestion. It is unclear when that will happen.
"Any delay obviously works for Microsoft," said Georg Greve, president of the Free Software Foundation Europe, which supports open source software that is distributed without cost. Vendors make their money through service.- (Reuters)
