The European Union Wednesday said it will give Microsoft one final opportunity to comment before it wraps up the antitrust probe it launched against the software titan nearly four years ago

In a statement Wednesday, the EU's European Commission said: "The commission has gathered additional evidence from a wide variety of consumers, suppliers and competitors. This evidence confirms and in many respects bolsters the commission's earlier finding that Microsoft is leveraging its dominant position from the PC into low-end servers and that Microsoft's tying of Windows Media Player to the Windows PC operating system weakens competition on the merits, stifles product innovation, and ultimately reduces consumer choice." The commission laid out its evidence in a 'Statement of Objections,' along with potential remedies, and invited Microsoft to comment before it finishes up the case. "This Statement of Objections, which includes the identification of appropriate remedies, gives Microsoft a last opportunity to comment before the commission concludes the case," Mario Monti, competition commissioner, said in a statement Wednesday. "We are determined to ensure that the final outcome of this case is to the benefit of innovation and consumers alike." "Microsoft has just received the commission's final Statement of Objections and we are now examining it to thorougly assess the concerns of the commission in detail," Microsoft spokesperson Stacy Drake told internetnews.com. "Microsoft takes this investigation very seriously and continues to work hard to maintain a dialogue that will allow positive resolution to the commission's concerns and this new Statement of Objections." However, Microsoft was not ready to discuss the commission's suggested remedies. "We just can't speculate on the possible outcomes or the suggested remedies of the commission," Drake said. Joe Wilcox, Microsoft analyst for Jupiter Research, noted, "For anyone thinking that Microsoft's antitrust problems were over, the European Union proved otherwise, today."