The European Commission has confirmed that it will be scaling back its monitoring of Microsoft, following its 2004 anti-competition ruling.
Citing "changes in Microsoft's behaviour" the EC will no longer have a full-time monitoring trustee to assess compliance with the 2004 ruling, which came about when the company was accused of anti-competitive behaviour.
"[T]he nature of the technical assistance that the Commission requires is now of a more ad hoc character," explains the Commission's release.
"The Commission therefore considers that the ongoing monitoring that is still necessary can be performed more appropriately with the help of technical consultants who are available under a framework service contract to advise on issues that arise from time to time."
No Trustee the Microsoftee
It continues: "In line with this, the Commission has today adopted a Decision which removes the Trustee provision from the 2004 Decision and repeals the 2005 Trustee Decision which provided for the modalities of the monitoring mechanism and the appointment of a monitoring trustee."
The EC has been digging deeply into the way Microsoft operates since the 2004 Microsoft Ruling that found the company had infringed European rules by bundling Windows Media Player as the default within Windows.
The EC may be relaxing its stance in this area, but it is still to make a judgment on the high-profile case over bundling Internet Explorer with Windows which has seen Microsoft win support from Google against complainant Opera who are backed by Mozilla.
Via BBC
