Urgent meeting in Microsoft case

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Microsoft will have to change its business practices if its appeal fails
A new round has opened in the European Commission anti-trust battle against Microsoft as the judge hearing its appeal called for a closed meeting.
The meeting - to be held on Thursday - follows US-based Novell and the Computer and Communications Industry Association dropping out of the case.

Both have recently received out-of-court settlements from Microsoft.

Novell got $536m (£286m), while the Financial Times reported that the CCIA received $19.75m.

Both Novell - which is still taking legal action against Microsoft over a separate case - and the CCIA had supported the European Commission (EC) in its anti-trust case against US software giant Microsoft.

This resulted in the EC finding against Microsoft in a major anti-trust case and fining it $646m in March, demanding big changes in Microsoft practices.

To date, Microsoft has settled with four out of its five major opponents in the appeal case, having previously spent $2.4bn settling claims with TimeWarner and Sun Microsystems.
source: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4037923.stm