EU: No Public Hearing for Microsoft

The European Commission has rejected a call by Microsoft to open up an antitrust hearing scheduled for March 30 and 31. The hearing will decide whether the Redmond company has complied with a March 2004 ruling against it, and could lead to additional fines surpassing 200 million euros.

Microsoft says it wants a public hearing so other companies can understand the far-reaching implications of the lawsuit. The company has recently used the media to plead its case while alleging the EU is withholding critical documents, and an open hearing would aid this effort. But EU spokesperson Jonathan Todd says, "the procedural regulation explicitly prohibits this."