EU settles anti-trust probe with Microsoft on web browser

The European Union has settled its decade-long anti-trust dispute with American software giant Microsoft, paving the way for consumers in Europe to have a wider choice of web browsers.

European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes today said that Microsoft's commitment are made "legally-binding", which closes the anti-trust investigation into tying of Internet Explorer to Windows PC operating system.

"Now -- for the first time in over a decade -- Internet users in Europe will have an effective and unbiased choice between Microsoft's Internet Explorer and competing web browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari and Opera," Kroes said in a statement.

The anti-competition concern arose as Microsoft has until now tied its web browser Internet Explorer to the Windows PC operating system. This meant that neither the computer makers nor users could replace it another browser.

Following the settlement, computer users with Windows PC operating system would be shown a "Choice Screen which will give them a choice between 12 most widely-used web browsers that run on Windows," the statement said.

The Choice Screen would be made available for the consumers from mid-March 2010.

During the 10-year long dispute, Microsoft had paid fine of more than $2.4 billion to the European authorities.

According to the statement, Microsoft is also prohibited from "circumventing free and effective browser choice by any contractual, technical or other means".

Kroes pointed out that computer makers would be able to turn Microsoft's web browser off and set another browser as their default one.

"In other words -- whichever way you look at it, Microsoft will have to earn clients for its web browser," she noted.