Brussels, Dec 16 (DPA) The European Commission said Wednesday it has resolved its long-running dispute with Microsoft after the US software giant agreed to allow customers a choice of Web browsers.
European Union (EU) competitions commissioner Neelie Kroes said the Commission had dropped the antitrust case it opened against Microsoft for restricting the use of browsers in its Windows operating systems.

The commission, which acts as the guardian of the EU’s single market, had previously threatened to sanction Microsoft for bundling its Internet Explorer browser with its operating systems.

Under the agreement announced Wednesday, Microsoft will give Windows users a choice of up to a dozen other browsers from rival companies.

“Millions of European consumers will benefit from this decision by having a free choice about which web browser they use,” Kroes said in a statement.

The announcement came after the Commission completed testing browser options proposed by Microsoft in July.

Under the deal, users of Windows operating systems in Europe will receive “a choice screen” enabling them to choose which web browser they want to install in addition to, or instead of, Internet Explorer.

In future versions of Windows, PC manufacturers would be able to install competing web browsers, set those as default and disable Internet Explorer,” the commission said earlier.

In 2004, the EU executive fined Microsoft 493 million euros ($608 million) 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.