Even as Microsoft got its domestic battles (somewhat) under control late last year, The Wall Street Journal revealed details of a confidential memo in which the EU accused Microsoft of willfully misleading its investigators. John Frank, a senior corporate lawyer for Microsoft, responded that the company had done "nothing to hinder the Commission's investigation. We have cooperated fully."
At least Windows XP seems to be off the hook. A few weeks after The Wall Street Journal published the memo, the EU responded to a UK newspaper report that EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti was making preliminary inquiries into XP's anticompetitive technologies. Amelia Torres, a spokesperson for Monti, said those reports were inaccurate. "At this point, the Commission is not examining XP officially or unofficially," Torres said. Torres noted that there hadn't been any new developments in Microsoft's European antitrust case since late August 2001, when the EU sent the company a statement of objections to which Microsoft must respond. However, Microsoft decided to forgo hearings scheduled for December 2001, with the reasoning that enough evidence was available publicly for the EU to make a decision.