1. Is the Commission aware that court proceedings in the United States aimed at forcing the Microsoft IT corporation to split into two companies, the one marketing operating systems and the other applications software, are continuing, partly as a result of complaints lodged by a number of States against a legal judgment overturning that requirement as handed down in a previous ruling?

2. Does it support the above objective of breaking up a monopoly in the sector? What in that connection were the Commission's reasons for announcing on 16 October 2001 that it would not include Microsoft's new operating system, Windows XP, in its investigations into monopoly practices?

3. What scope does the Commission see for the future survival of companies marketing products with Microsoft-comparable features if they are unable to sell their separate stand-alone products because of the bundled-software approach operated by Microsoft?

4. For what reasons did competition Commissioner Mario Monti describe as premature and speculative reports in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere of fines of up to 10 % of annual turnover or 2,5 billion dollars being imposed on Microsoft after a statement of objections had been leaked in which the company was accused of misleading and obstructing EU investigators by submitting 34 letters, apparently from customers, that were intended only to support and defend its business practices.

5. Does the Commission intend to impose a requirement for the EU market that particular functionality and applications associated with bundled desktop and server configurations and integration of consumer applications into such software be removed from the Windows operating system?

6. Does the combined use of Windows desktop and server configurations, which extends to extra functionality, such as management applications, amount to illegal practices aimed at dominating the market in low- to middle-range servers?

7. How does the Commission assess the fact that Microsoft withholds details of Windows APIs (application program interfaces) from suppliers of competing server operating systems, which led server producer Sun Microsystems to lodge a complaint with the Commission in 1999?

8. How does the Commission assess the fact that the built-in Windows Media Player provides a distribution channel for internet multimedia not available to Microsoft's competitors? Will it seek to end the new monopoly arising from this bundled-software operation?

Source: Computable 19 October 2001