Endless battles over infringing anti-trust laws by Microsoft come to end

After a long run battle over allowing third party developers to create programs for Windows users Microsoft decided to take unprecedented actions and agree to let users choose their own browser and to provide more interoperability information to third parties.

In its latest charge on January 15 the European Commission charged Microsoft with antitrust-law violation by bundling the company's Web browser with its Windows PC operating system, thereby harming innovation and reducing consumer choice. A year before the EU executive started and investigation after industry body ECIS filed a complaint alleging that Microsoft declined to provide information that would allow third parties to design programs compatible with its products.

Thus, Microsoft decided to settle the two anti-trust cases which was welcomed by the Commission. The software giant said that its proposals aimed to allay EU antitrust concerns and end a decade of legal issues.

According to the Commission, Microsoft proposed to install a "ballot screen" that would allow users to set up rival Web browsers on Windows 7 and disable Internet Explorer if they wanted, a remedy the Commission had suggested in its January 2009 charge sheet.

"The proposal recognizes the principle that consumers should be given a free and effective choice of Web browser, and sets out a means -- the ballot screen -- by which Microsoft believes that can be achieved," the Commission said in a statement.

ECIS, whose members include IBM, Nokia, Oracle Corp and Sun Microsystems, welcomed Microsoft's proposals.