UPDATE: October 7, 2009 – 4:15 a.m. Pacific
Posted by David Bowermaster
Administrator, Microsoft on the Issues
We have issued an updated and more detailed statement from General Counsel Brad Smith on today’s EC announcement on PressPass.
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The European Commission today announced that it will market test a set of measures Microsoft has offered to address competition law concerns relating to Windows, Office and other high volume Microsoft products.
In response, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith issued the following statement to the press:
“We welcome today’s announcement by the European Commission to move forward with formal market testing of Microsoft’s proposal relating to web browser choice in Europe. We also welcome the opportunity to take the next step in the process regarding our proposal to promote interoperability with a broad range of our products.
“Today’s announcement follows our publication of earlier drafts of these two proposals in July and broad feedback from across our industry to the Commission in August. Microsoft then engaged in extensive discussions with the Commission over the last month, during which we agreed to make numerous changes to improve these proposals. For Microsoft, today’s decision is a significant step toward closing a decade-long chapter of competition law concerns in Europe.”
We have also posted on our PressPass site updated versions of our detailed proposals to the Commission, which we first shared with the Commission in July.