The U.S. Justice Department's top antitrust official called the remedy in Microsoft Corp's U.S. antitrust case "well-crafted" and "successful," and urged U.S. and European Union officials on Friday to be cautious in fighting abusive monopoly behavior.

In the next seven days, both Microsoft's European Union and United States antitrust cases will reach critical junctures. A routine U.S. hearing tomorrow will likely be anything but routine. Elsewhere, an appeals court will issue a ruling on the validity of Microsoft's adverse antitrust case in Europe.

Microsoft Corp. ended more than a decade of antitrust disputes with the European Union by giving consumers a choice among Web browsers.

The European Commission confirmed it has received a complaint about Microsoft's business practices from a British government agency Tuesday, but isn't following it up as it normally would with an antitrust complaint, according to a press officer.

Microsoft has dropped two outstanding appeals of European antitrust rulings, following the deal struck with the European Commission at the beginning of this week, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

A European Union court upheld most of a landmark 2004 European Commission antitrust decision against Microsoft

The European Commission has opened an antitrust investigation into Google's business activities after complaints from three European companies. The companies, which offer services similar to Google's, believe that Google actively demotes their rankings in its search results because they are competitors.

If one were to believe Microsoft, antitrust law is for sore losers who are too lazy to innovate, and the decision of the European Court of Justice against Microsoft was to the detriment of consumers around the world. One might even believe that any company with large enough market share would now have to fear the wrath of the European Commission and its anti-innovation bloodhounds.

U.S. antitrust officials have approved Yahoo's (purchase of e-mail software maker Zimbra for $350 million, the Federal Trade Commission announced on Monday.
Antitrust authorities took a preliminary look at the deal and said it posed no antitrust concerns, the FTC said in a statement