A pro-business think tank in Europe has recommended unbundling Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system from sales of new PCs in order to give customers more choice when buying a new computer.
A report from the Globalisation Institute in Brussels urges the European Commission to require that PCs and operating systems be sold separately in Europe to break Microsoft’s monopoly in the desktop OS market.
The report is gaining attention partly because the Globalisation Institute usually advocates a hands-off approach to business regulation. It researches and develops policy options that are sometimes championed by politicians.
Its report comes one week after Europe’s second-highest court turned down Microsoft’s appeal of the European Commission’s 2004 antitrust ruling against it, which fined Microsoft