Microsoft Corp., a U.S. company, designs, develops, and markets software products, including operating systems for client personal computers (client PCs), operating systems for work group servers, and streaming media players. Sun Microsystems, Inc., another U.S. company, lodged a complaint with the European Commission alleging that Microsoft had refused to give Sun the information necessary to allow Sun's work group server operating systems to interoperate with the Windows client PC operating system. In 2000, the Commission launched an investigation of Microsoft's Windows 2000 generation of client PC and work group server operating systems and Microsoft's integration of its Windows Media Player into the PC operating system. In March 2004, the Commission entered a decision finding Microsoft guilty of two abuses of dominant market position, violating Articles 82 and 54. The Commission ordered Microsoft to (1) make its operating system more accessible to competitors, (2) offer client PC systems that did not bundle the Windows Media Player, and (3) set up and pay for an independent monitoring trustee to ensure Microsoft did not violate the order.
1. Would Microsoft have been ordered to provide the interconnection instructions if it had only a 40 percent market share in operating systems?
2. If Apple were to obtain a larger market share in the future, would there be a basis for relieving Microsoft of this judgment?
3. This order prohibits Microsoft from giving a program away when a computer is purchased. Why?