IDG News Service - The European Commission insisted yesterday that a top official in charge of information society policy who will soon begin working for Microsoft Corp. has had nothing to do with the regulator's four-year antitrust investigation of the company (see story).
Detlef Eckert is taking a three-year sabbatical from the European Commission to work in the Trustworthy Computing division of Microsoft EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), said commission spokesman Jonathan Faull.
"He has not worked in a related area" to the Microsoft investigation, Faull said.
Eckert has been the head of a unit within the Information Society directorate of the commission that deals with analysis, policy planning and the commission's e-Europe initiative. Most recently he has been involved in the rollout of broadband Internet access across Europe.
Eckert will work from Microsoft's offices in Paris, within the .Net group, a Microsoft spokeswoman said Wednesday.
"He will not have anything to do with the European antitrust case," she said.
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