Brussels - The European Commission on Wednesday welcomed plans by Microsoft to offer new Windows users a choice of web browsers as a means of addressing the regulator's concerns. "I have good grounds for thinking that we are moving towards a very satisfactory resolution of some serious competition problems in the computer software sector, and more particularly web browsers and interoperability information," said Neelie Kroes, the European Union's competition commissioner.
The commission, which acts as the guardian of the EU's single market, had previously threatened to sanction the US software giant for bundling its Internet Explorer browser with its operating systems.
The EU executive had also criticised Microsoft's decision in June to strip Internet Explorer from the European versions of its Windows 7 operating system, saying such a move would offer consumers less, rather than more choice.
Microsoft has since changed its mind and is now set to offer new Windows users a choice of browsers.
Under its revised proposal, Microsoft would make available for five years in Europe, through the Windows Update mechanism, "a choice screen enabling users of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 to choose which web browser(s) they want to install in addition to, or instead of Internet Explorer.
"Likewise, in future versions of Windows, including Windows 7, PC manufacturers would be able to install competing web browsers, set those as default and disable Internet Explorer," the commission said in a statement.
By offering consumers a free and effective choice of web browser, Microsoft's would "indeed address our competition concerns," Kroes said.
The software giant described the commission's decision to allow it to "market test" different browsers as "a significant step toward closing a decade-long chapter of competition law concerns in Europe."
In 2004, the EU executive fined Microsoft 493 million euros (608 million dollars at then prices) for anti-competitive behaviour, including attaching its media player to Windows. Additional fines in the case later brought the total to close on 1.7 billion euros.
