Brussels, 04/11/2002 (Agence Europe) -Amelia Torres, Spokesperson for Commissioner Mario Monti declared that the Commission would be continuing its inquiry into Microsoft independently of the conclusions reached by the US judiciary last Friday. Ms Torres explained that the Commission case was relatively different and that they had their own rules. The Commission spokesperson also added that they would see whether the US decisions would have any influence on their own case. Microsoft was recognised as being guilty of taking advantage of its dominant position on the US market in April 2000. By way of an "amicable agreement" between the US judiciary and Microsoft, the latter made a commitment to making it easier for its rivals to put their products on the market. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly confirmed on Friday the main points of the agreement. The Commission statement of objections particularly involved the multimedia software, Mediaplayer. Several competitors complained of the incorporation of Mediaplayer in the Windows system, which is a Microsoft subsidiary, thus giving them an unfair advantage over competing programmes and constituted an abuse of their monopoly position (see EUROPE 11 March p 8). According to the Financial Times, Microsoft had stated that it wasn't prepared to disassociate itself from the two products and hoped that the EU would not make a decision that was too different from that concluded in the USA. The Commission also suspects that the Microsoft developed Windows in a way that it would function better with its own Windows NT server to the detriment of its competitors, which used either Linux or other versions. The spokesperson pointed out that two statements of objections had been sent to Microsoft in 2000 and 2001. The Commission would now be looking at the comments that it sent to Microsoft after the second statement of objections but will not be able to bring the date forward in order to reach the conclusions it intended to make