The head of Europe's second-highest court questioned the effectiveness and the cost of the European Union's antitrust ruling forcing Microsoft Corp. to sell a version of Windows without a video and music player.
Bo Vesterdorf, the president of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, today ended two days of hearings into whether to suspend measures imposed on Microsoft by the European Commission. The EU's regulator said it can't predict the impact of the ruling, which may raise costs for consumers, independent software vendors such as RealNetworks Inc. and PC makers, known as original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs.
``Isn't it dramatic to impose a remedy to which you don't really know the result, with all the complications it seems to bring for ISVs, OEMs, for Microsoft and for (RealNetworks') RealPlayer and not really know what will be the result?'' Vesterdorf asked.
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