Will this prospective platform war produce a dominant company in the mould of IBM or Microsoft that is able to extract more than its fair share of the profits?

The commission should not take the Microsoft decision as encouragement to jump on every dominant company when competitors complain about it, for firms' grips can loosen as well as tighten.

This, in a sense, sums up the battle: Microsoft is the dominant player – both Europe and American courts have questioned whether the company is a dangerous monopoly.