The EU Commission condemns leading US software company for abuse of a dominant position in the market for client PC operating systems, ordering to grant compulsory license to competitor (Microsoft / Sun Microsystems)

This article analyses the three major recent cases dealing with the boundary between EC competition law and intellectual property rights: the Commission’s interim measures decision in the IMS case, the European Court of Justice’s later judgment in IMS and, finally, the Commission’s decision in the Microsoft case. The article starts by analysing the key legal and factual elements in each of these three precedents. It then examines whether the Commission’s approach in its IMS and Microsoft decisions is consistent with that of the European Court of Justice in its IMS judgment. The analysis shows that the Commission’s approach in both Decisions differs from that laid down by the Court. In particular, the Commission has adopted a less demanding standard as regards the conditions under which