COURT RULING THREATENS MICROSOFT.

• Position: Cases - Brief Article

The ruling handed down by the EU Court of Justice on April 29 in a case pitting two American companies specialising in the collection of data on the sale of pharmaceuticals against each other - IMS Health and NDC Health - might have consequences for the Microsoft case. The relationship between copyright and competition law lies at the heart of this ruling since the Court has concluded in this case that a refusal to grant a licence to a competitor may represents an abuse of a dominant position.

The Court's opinion on the case may therefore have some significance for the Microsoft case. The American software giant proposes to challenge its condemnation for abuse of dominant position by the European Commission in March before the Judges in Luxembourg. Microsoft points to copyright in defending its dominant position and as grounds for refusing to open interfaces to competitors like Sun Microsystems or IBM. A Commission spokesman...