Brussels, Belgium – A Massachusetts court has rejected a Microsoft Corp. request to force software rival Novell Inc. to hand over European Union correspondence that Microsoft claims it needs to defend itself against antitrust charges in Europe.
According to a court order Monday, U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf said Microsoft had not shown that the EU proceedings were fundamentally unfair or would be if it did not have access to the Novell documents.
He said the European Commission had told the court it viewed Microsoft’s subpoena as a “thinly veiled attempt” to circumvent EU procedures that aimed to strike a balance between a defendant’s right to see antitrust papers and companies that “may have a well-founded fear of retaliation if they assist the Commission in such cases.”
