# The European Commission finds Microsoft abused a dominant position Date: 2004 ## The fact On 24 March 2004 the European Commission decided that Microsoft had abused a dominant position by withholding interoperability information and tying Windows Media Player, imposing a record fine. [Gates](/people/bill-gates) was chairman. ## Context Neighbouring 2001 US settlement is the softer US ending. Neighbouring 2009 browser choice is later EU. He did not sit as the hearing officer. 2001 US settlement is neighbouring. 2009 browser-choice decision is later EU. Bill Gates was Microsoft CEO until January 2000, chairman until February 2014, then a technical adviser until 2020, and a Gates Foundation co-chair. That is not authorship of every Windows copy, every GAVI dose, or every IRS schedule. Melinda French Gates is a different person. Bill Clinton is PER-000772, a different person. A pledge is not a coverage rate. A docket is not a personality. ## Evidence and sources European Commission carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently. ## Significance ## What is established and what is not Established: 24 March 2004 Commission Microsoft decision, independently reported. Not established: that Windows share collapsed that week, or a unique later consumer-surplus coefficient from Brussels. What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions. The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit. The Commission decided. Courts later largely upheld. US settlement did not bind Brussels.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies The European Commission finds Microsoft abused a dominant position, not a later speech about The European Commission finds Microsoft abused a dominant position. Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. The European Commission finds Microsoft abused a dominant position on 2004-03-24 is not a licence to treat every later European Commission communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor instrument exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average The European Commission finds Microsoft abused a dominant position into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He was chairman of the addressee. The Commission decided. Courts later largely upheld. US settlement did not bind Brussels. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series. ## People - Bill Gates: https://factrail.ai/people/bill-gates ## Drivers - Antitrust Pressure in Digital Markets: https://factrail.ai/drivers/antitrust-pressure-in-digital-markets - Digital-Rights and Platform-Power Regulation: https://factrail.ai/drivers/tech-digital-rights-regulation ## Sources - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-microsoft-eu-idUSL2420040324 - https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32007D0053 ## Methodology https://factrail.ai/methodology Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/eu-microsoft-2004