By Sylvia Carr, 23 August 2004 12:00
NEWS The woman set to become the European Commission's competition tsar has connections to Bill Gates, but says it will not represent a conflict of interest in deciding the fate of Microsoft's European antitrust case.
Neelie Kroes awarded Gates an honorary degree in 1996, while she was president of the Nijenrode Business School.
If she gets the job as competition commissioner, pending approval by the European Parliament, she'll have to rule on Microsoft's ongoing antitrust case in Europe.
Kroes would start the new job on 1 November, replacing Mario Monti.
The EC found in March that Microsoft abused its dominant market position, fined the company €497m and ordered that it change the way it bundles its media player software. Microsoft has since paid the fine but says it will appeal the ruling. The software-bundling order has been temporarily suspended pending the result of the appeal, which is expected to drag on for years.
Kroes said on Friday that she thought Gates in 1996 was doing a "good job" but now she has "different responsibilities".
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