Paul Meller

The European Commission has reached a settlement with Deutsche Telekom AG over its anticompetitive practices in the market for cheap high-speed Internet services in Germany.

The European Commission is close to resolving its long-standing concerns about mobile phone operators overcharging people for using their phones abroad, a Commission official close to the competition department said Wednesday.

The European Parliament has postponed a vote on a controversial law on intellectual property enforcement until early March, following drawn out negotiations with the European Commission and member state governments.

European Commissioner for competition Mario Monti may demand that Microsoft Corp. sell two versions of its ubiquitous operating system, Windows, in Europe: one with Media Player inside as it does at present, and another with the music and video playing software stripped out and sold separately, people close to the case said on Tuesday.

The European Commission has rejected an offer from Microsoft Corp. to settle its long-running antitrust case, said people familiar with the situation on Tuesday.

Sharing music over the Internet could become a criminal offense if some members of the European Parliament get their way in a debate next week. The Parliament is set to debate a draft law designed to stamp out mass pirating and counterfeiting of digital products such as music and movies.

Governments around the world were urged to cooperate more in their fight against the proliferation of spam, or unsolicited e-mail, at a conference Monday organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Microsoft Corp.'s chances of settling its European antitrust case are fading, as competition officials at the European Commission circulated a draft ruling to colleagues that finds the company guilty of abusing the monopoly power of its Windows operating system, people close to the Commission said Tuesday.