The lead judge of the European Union’s second-highest court has proposed
changing justices in the Microsoft antitrust appeal, according to several published reports.
The suggestion comes after a wave of criticism aimed at the judge heading
the Microsoft antitrust case following a newspaper article he wrote
criticizing other judges and clerks involved in the appeal, according to a
letter sent to all parties in the case.
Reuters also reported that Court of First Instance President Bo Vesterdorf said the appeal should be
transferred to a panel which he will head, primarily because public comments
made by current head justice Hubert Legal, criticizing the court’s
“arbitrary power.”
The appeal of the European Commission’s antitrust ruling, which is part
of the 25-nation European Union, fined Microsoft a record $613 million after
it ruled the company abused its “virtual
monopoly” with its Windows operating system, breaking European
antitrust law governing competition.
Microsoft’s appeal is currently in front of the Court of First Instance
in Luxembourg, which is headed by Legal.
Legal has also faced criticism for speaking publicly about the case. Calls for his removal came after he published an article in the French
journal Concurrences (Competition) saying some of the judges’ clerks tended
to regard themselves as “ayatollahs of free enterprise” and should avoid an
impression of “arbitrary power,” according to the Reuters.
All members of the 25-judge court will meet this week to vote on
Vesterdorf’s proposals, once those who received the letter offer their
comments by Friday.
A Microsoft spokesman was not immediately available for comment on the developments.
Vesterdorf previously heard Microsoft’s
unsuccessful attempt in 2004 to drop sanctions until the case was
complete.
“It is an attempt to make vivid for the academics a theoretical,
intellectual problem which we have to face in the future,” Legal told
Reuters, attempting to explain the reason for writing the article in the
French publication.
“There was no criticism intended of Bo Vesterdorf in particular and no
criticism intended for the case law of the Court of First Instance or for
the court itself,” he said.
It is not the first time Microsoft has been forced top deal with judges
speaking about their anti-trust woes with the media. In 2001 U.S. District
Judge Thomas Jackson
https://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/899801″>improperly gave
interviews about the U.S. antitrust case while the suit was ongoing.