Microsoft Corp. asked a European court on Friday to suspend the European Commission’s decision that orders the software giant to change the way it sells Windows software, according to sources familiar with the situation.
The company has already gone to court to appeal against the Commission’s decision in March to impose a record fine of 497 million euros ($602.8 million) and to change its business practices.
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The European Union executive slapped the fine on Microsoft after concluding that it abused its dominance of personal computer operating systems.
Microsoft has now asked the EU’s Court of First Instance to suspend the EU’s orders until a final court ruling. This may take three years or more.
In its March decision, the Commission gave Microsoft 90 days to separate Windows Media Player, which plays music and video over the Internet, from its Windows operating system.
The company timed its appeal to land before the 90 days elapsed.
It would be up to computer makers to decide whether to ship Windows with the Windows Media Player or with a rival product, such as RealNetworks’ Real Player.
The Commission also gave Microsoft 120 days to license interconnection software to ease the way for rivals to hook up their servers to Windows as easily as Microsoft does.
The Commission said Microsoft once provided the information to makers of network software -- which is used to print documents in offices and to share files -- but pulled back when Microsoft began making its own competing products.
Court of First Instance President Bo Vesterdorf will decide alone whether to grant the suspensions or not.
His ruling may be appealed to the European Court of Justice, the highest EU court.
In the past, Vesterdorf has sometimes urged both parties in a case to put the matter on fast track. In two cases, the Commission agreed to voluntarily suspend remedies and the companies agree to narrow the issues to three.
The cases were then decided within less than a year.
The 302-page European Commission decision in March said that Microsoft’s tying of its Windows Media Player to the Windows operating system “interferes with the normal competitive process which would benefit users in terms of quicker cycles of innovation due to unfettered competition on the merits.”
On Friday, the court initially announced that Microsoft had lodged an appeal against the sanctions, then retracted the announcement, saying it had been issued by mistake.
However, sources confirmed to Reuters that Microsoft had indeed asked the court to suspend the remedies.
Microsoft and the Commission had no immediate comment.