Microsoft Drops South Korea Antitrust Appeal
Possibly sensing that it would be an uphill battle, Microsoft said Tuesday that it planned to drop its appeal of an anti-trust ruling in South Korea.
The Redmond company had lost a similar appeal in Europe in mid-September. A request to dismiss its appeal was sent to the Seoul High Court last week.
In South Korea, the company was accused of breaking anti-trust laws by bundling its media player and instant messaging software with the Windows OS. It was fined 32 billion won ($35 million USD) and ordered to remove the software from Windows.
Daum Communications, the ISP in South Korea that originally complained over Microsoft's bundling techniques, recently settled with Microsoft for $30 million USD.
The judgement in the Eastern nation is of course nowhere near that of the EU in size. Courts there found Microsoft guilty of antitrust violations and slapped it with a 497 million euro fine in 2004.
Microsoft had no immediate statement on the decision, however the Korean Fair Trade Commission declared victory against the Redmond company.