ECIS to appear as intervener before the European court in Luxembourg in support of the European Commission
The European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) will present its arguments before the European Court of First Instance (CFI) in support of the European Commission and its 24 March 2004 Decision finding Microsoft abused its overwhelmingly dominant position in PC operating systems by preventing interoperability by refusing to provide interface information and tying Windows Media Player with the Windows operating system. ECIS strongly supports the Decision’s conclusions with regard to refusal to provide interoperability information and illegal tying, which both address Microsoft practices aimed at eliminating consumer choice.
The CFI hearings start on 24 April 2006 and are expected to last until 28 April 2006.
ECIS is admitted as a third party intervener in the case in support of the Commission. ECIS is closely coordinating its contribution with the other interveners supporting the Commission, the Software and Information Industries Association (SIIA), multimedia software provider VideoBanner.com , and the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE).