March 14, 2009 by James Oliver
Microsoft, which is currently in the process of being sued by the European Union for violating antitrust laws, has been granted an extension of the deadline for them to respond to the allegations facing them. The new deadline has been set for April the 21st. The extension is a significant act of good faith on the part of the European Union – the body is not usually in the habit of granting extensions of this nature. It is thought that the size of the company and the large-scale nature of the infringement are factors in its decision to do so in this case.
Microsoft was originally given two months to respond to the EU’s charge that the bundling of Internet Explorer with the Windows operating system was anti-competitive. The whole thing became a little more complicated recently when both Firefox and Google were granted third party status in the process, allowing them to review any data sent to the EU by Microsoft.
The software giant made what was taken as a concession to the EU’s point of view last week when it announced that it would be allowing users to turn off IE in the new version of Windows, though the EU’s proceedings are still ongoing.
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