Today, Microsoft has filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court of South Korea regarding the sanctions imposed by the country’s antitrust regulators.
Microsoft’s recent move is a development that had been anticipated. Shortly after receiving penalties from the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) last December, Microsoft announced its intention to take the matter to court.
“Microsoft believes that all our activities are in compliance with the law and beneficial for both users and the technology industry in South Korea,” the company stated in its official announcement regarding the lawsuit.
The KFTC’s official ruling in February indicated that Microsoft had “tied” certain software to Windows, leveraging its dominance in the operating system market.
The commission has ordered Microsoft to pay a fine of $33.6 million and to provide two separate versions of the Windows operating system: one version without Windows Media Player and Windows Messenger, and another version that allows users to link to websites where they can download third-party software.
In its statement, Microsoft said: “We will no longer be able to offer users in South Korea a version of Windows that is the same as in other parts of the world. Furthermore, this ruling will create additional challenges for South Korean hardware and software manufacturers, thereby reducing their competitiveness.”
