Michael's Mind

In March, the Commission found that Microsoft illegally abused its dominance of the desktop operating system market. The Commission ordered the company to pay a record 497 million Euro fine, disclose to competitors the interfaces required to communicate with Windows and produce a version of Windows that excludes the Windows Media Player.

Microsoft paid the fine in the spring and has already accounted for it in its financial statements. However, the company argued that adopting the other provisions would harm the company's ability to compete.

In a statement, the court disagreed: "Microsoft has not shown that it might suffer serious and irreparable damage as a result of implementation of the contested decision."