The EU announced this morning that it is dropping their antitrust charges against Microsoft. This comes after the software giant agreed to grant their OS users a choice from over 12 other web browsers. Additional browsers include Mozilla’s Firefox, Google’s chrome, Apple’s Safari and Opera.

Microsoft reached an agreement which will allow users to vote from a ballot screen to replace Internet explorer with additional browsers starting in March of 2010. This deal also means that computer manufacturers will be able to ship computers to Europe that do not come preinstalled with Internet Explorer.

If Microsoft honors this agreement they will further avoid additional EU fines. In the last 10 years Microsoft has paid €1.68 billion in fines resulting from EU antitrust violations.

Microsoft also received a warning, though: they can be fined up to 10% of yearly global turnover, and regulators will not have to prove their case if the company does not stick to its commitment for the next five years. Regulators will be checking in every six months to determine the company’s adherence.  

European Union Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes in a statement said millions of European consumers will benefit from this decision by gaining “free browser choice”, and that it will also spur browser makers “to innovate and offer people better browsers in the future”.

This comes after Opera software pleaded with the European commission to investigate Microsoft’s abuse of its dominant position, and the company’s insistence of bundling Internet Explorer within the Windows operating system. After a long two-year investigation the EU charge Microsoft with a monopoly abuse. Antitrust suit also included Google and Mozilla as partners. Due to having their browsers dominated by Microsoft. The EU estimates that nearly 100,000,000 computers will display the options choice by mid-March of 2010. In addition some 30 million new computers will have it shown over the next five years.


Written by: Michael Quale, who runs a website about Local SEO