Microsoft faces antitrust probes
Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, is facing two new antitrust probes in Europe as regulators open another front in the dispute Monday three months after resolving a similar fight.
The European Union will investigate whether Microsoft is using its dominance in word processing and spreadsheets to thwart rivals. It also will review whether Microsoft illegally tied an Internet browser to its Windows operating system.
The investigations complicate Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer’s efforts to resolve disputes with the European Commission, the EU’s antitrust regulator.
In October, Microsoft agreed to license information on its Windows operating system to end three years of wrangling after an EU court upheld a 2004 antitrust ruling by the commission.
Microsoft will cooperate fully with the EU and provide all necessary information, the Redmond, Wash.-based company said in a statement.
“We are committed to ensuring that Microsoft is in full compliance with European law and our obligations as established by the European Court of First Instance in its September 2007 ruling,” the company said.
Microsoft’s efforts to resolve the case last year, which involved claims that the company illegally withheld network data from rivals and bundled a media player with its PC operating system, included Ballmer’s trip to the Netherlands to meet with EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. In addition to dropping an appeal of the 2004 ruing, the company paid a fine of 497 million euros ($739 million) in the case.
One of the two probes follows a complaint in February 2006 by a group representing IBM Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc. and eight other companies. The group, the European Committee for Interoperability Systems, claims that Microsoft doesn’t provide formatting and other information to allow rival products to work with Microsoft Office software, including Word and Excel.
The second investigation involves a complaint by Opera Software, a Norwegian maker of Web browsers, that Microsoft uses its dominant position to prevent consumers from trying Internet browsers made by competitors.
