Microsoft Tries to Quell European Complaints

BRUSSELS — European antitrust regulators said Wednesday that they had tentatively accepted Microsoft’s concessions to settle two antitrust cases, which the company said left both organizations free to focus on the next generation of technology giants, including Google.

The European Union competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, said at a briefing Wednesday that concessions made by Microsoft to give European computer users a choice of Web browsers appeared to address many antitrust concerns. She said another case against the company could be settled this year.

In a telephone conference call with reporters, Microsoft’s chief lawyer, Brad Smith, did not mention Google by name. But he said clearing the decks in Brussels meant the company could turn its attention to the market for Internet search technologies and winning approval for its proposed merger with Yahoo. That deal would allow Microsoft to become a bigger player in online advertising, a market currently dominated by Google.

“It is very important for us to resolve competition law issues that have been on the agenda for more than a decade,” Mr. Smith said. “I don’t think that hurts, and it probably helps as we address some other issues.”

“There are still loose ends to tie up, but it looks like the battle with Microsoft is in the end game and there is a clear vacancy for antitrust poster child in Europe,” said Stephen Kinsella, an antitrust partner with the law firm Sidley Austin. “My money is on Google.”

Earlier, Ms. Kroes said she had “good grounds for thinking we are moving towards a very satisfactory resolution” of two cases, one concerning the way Microsoft bundles its Internet Explorer Web browser with its Windows operating system, and the other involving the way other brands communicate with Microsoft products.

But a coalition of Microsoft’s competitors, the European Committee for Interoperable Systems, which has an outstanding complaint against Microsoft over failure to provide information necessary to achieve compatibility with its products, remained wary.

Thomas Vinje, the legal counsel for the organization, which represents companies like I.B.M., Nokia and Oracle, questioned whether consumers would have a “real and unbiased choice” of browsers and whether competing companies would be able to enforce the commitments made by Microsoft on interoperability.

Mr. Vinje said the commission still had “to ensure that Microsoft lives up to its part of the deal.”

Mr. Smith of Microsoft said, however, that the European Union should be able to drop the complaint by Mr. Vinje’s group without further action as part of the wide-ranging settlement.

Mr. Smith said that moving on from the European case would also allow regulators to concentrate on potential competition law issues raised by I.B.M., which is developing a new generation of powerful computers. He cited the merger of Oracle and Sun Microsystems as evidence of the emergence of potentially powerful new forces.

European officials have been informally market-testing the offer — first made by Microsoft in July — that would give European computer users a choice of Web browsers.

Since then, Microsoft has offered more tweaks to its software so that users of new and existing Windows-based computers in Europe already loaded with Internet Explorer would get a so-called ballot screen that would let them download other browsers and turn off Microsoft’s default Explorer.

Users of existing Windows-based computers with Internet Explorer in Europe would receive an update prompting them to choose from among competing browsers, European officials said.

Ms. Kroes said she would spend the next month holding formal testing of the Microsoft offer with consumers and clients. She said she intended to reach a so-called commitment decision on the browser case enforceable with fines if Microsoft wavered in its compliance.