France's antitrust authority has persuaded Nespresso to change its anti-competitive practices in the coffee-pod market and open its espresso machine to third parties, reports the Wall Street Journal. The deal comes after Nespresso's long, losing battle to shut out competitors with patents and customer warnings.

In France, Nespresso controls 78 percent of the coffee pod market, according to the Journal. Two competitors complained to the French Autoritée de la Concurrence two years ago, and Nespresso lost a patent covering its machines last year.

As part of the new agreement, Nespresso will remove language on its pods and machines that suggest only Nespresso products can be used together. Nespresso will also provide support to users of its machines who use third-party pods and will "abstain from negative comments about other capsules."

The battle mirrors a similar one happening in the US, where one of the dominant coffee pod brands, Keurig (owned by Green Mountain) revealed it will lock down its machines against unauthorized third-party pods starting in 2015 with a verification scheme that may look like one used for toner cartridges. Two of Keurig's competitors have sued the company.