EU signals further antitrust action against Microsoft

Stephen Withers
Sunday, 18 January 2009 17:51

IT Industry - Development

Not content with the massive €899 million fine levied on Microsoft last year, the European Commission is considering further action against the software giant. This time, Internet Explorer is at the heart of the issue.

For over a decade, Microsoft has bundled Internet Explorer with various versions of the Windows operating system. This has generally been seen as detrimental to competition in browsers.

Prior to the arrival of Internet Explorer, Netscape was the dominant browser, but that quickly changed. More recently, the open source Firefox browser and to a lesser extent Apple's Safari have eaten into Internet Explorer's market share, but Microsoft's browser still takes the lion's share.

This is largely because it ships as a standard part of the software bundle on some 90 percent of PCs sold around the world.

In a memo released over the weekend, the European Commission confirmed that it has sent a statement of objections to Microsoft, asserting that the Commission has taken a preliminary view that the tying of Internet Explorer with Windows is an abuse of its dominant position.

A similar position was taken by the EC regarding the tying of Windows Media Player with Windows, and in March 2004 the commission required Microsoft to offer a version of Windows without Windows Media Player.

Some competitors and observers did not think that was a satisfactory outcome, as Microsoft was free to sell the WMP-free version of Windows at the same price as the regular versions.

What might happen this time? Please read on.