New Microsoft Probe
January 14, 2008
Just when Microsoft thought it was safe to go back into Europe, the European Commission opened a new antitrust probe into the US software giant, accusing Bill Gates' company of unfairly obstructing the ability of rival applications to work on its operating systems.
The probe was opened after the commission received two official complaints; one from Opera, a Norwegian maker of a Web browser which competes with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and another from the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS), an industry group which claimed Microsoft did not disclose enough interoperability information for its range of products.
"The [Opera] complaint alleges that there is ongoing competitive harm from Microsoft's practices, in particular in view of new proprietary technologies that Microsoft has allegedly introduced in its browser that would reduce compatibility with open internet standards, and therefore hinder competition," the commission statement read.
"In addition, allegations of tying of other separate software products by Microsoft, including desktop search and Windows Live have been brought to the Commission's attention," it added. "The Commission's investigation will therefore focus on allegations that a range of products have been unlawfully tied to sales of Microsoft's dominant operating system."
"In the complaint by ECIS, Microsoft is alleged to have illegally refused to disclose interoperability information across a broad range of products, including information related to its Office suite, a number of its server products, and also in relation to the so-called .NET Framework," the commission statement continued.
"The Commission's examination will therefore focus on all these areas, including the question whether Microsoft's new file format Office Open XML, as implemented in Office, is sufficiently interoperable with competitors' products."
No evidence so far
While the probe could mean further bad news for Microsoft in Europe, the European Commission made it clear that it did not have any evidence of wrong-doing and that it was, at this stage, just investigating the complaints.
"This initiation of proceedings does not imply that the Commission has proof of an infringement," the commission said. "It only signifies that the Commission will further investigate the case as a matter of priority.
Microsoft was hit by a fine of 497 million euros ($688.84 million) in September last year after Europe's second-highest court dismissed the company's appeal against an EU antitrust decision, taken in 2004. The Court of First Instance upheld the commission's conclusion that Microsoft had been guilty of monopoly abuse and had taken advantage of its dominance in the desktop computer market to bundle other products with the ubiquitous Windows operating system.
The commission ordered the US-based multinational corporation to sell a version of their flagship Windows operating system without a media player and to share technical information with competitors so that they could more easily create Windows-compatible programs.
Microsoft pledged in October to give third party program developers access to information that will allow them to make systems interoperable with Windows. It also said it would substantially cut the fees it charges for such data.