Brussels, 15/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - As announced on Monday, the European Commission has opened two new investigations against alleged anti-competitive practices by US company Microsoft. These investigations follow complaints by competitors of the computing multi-national over the compatibility of some of its software and access to interoperability information. The judgment of the Court of First Instance in September 2008 (see EUROPE 9503) reinforces the validity of opening these investigations.
In a brief press release published on Monday evening, Microsoft said it was ready to “cooperate fully with the Commission's investigation and provide any and all information necessary”. In October 2007, Microsoft decided to comply with Commission demands in the previous cases rather than appeal against the Court decision (se EUROPE 9528).
In the first of the new investigations, the company stands accused of failing to provide sufficient information to facilitate interoperability between its Office suite and competitors' products. A complaint was lodged in February 2006 by competitors, including Nokia, IBM, Adobe, Sun Microsystems, RealNetworks and Red Hat, under the umbrella of the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS). The second investigation opened by Brussels is on “tied sales” of the Internet Explorer software with the Windows operating system, which is used in 95% of personal computers. This possibly illegal practice was criticised in the autumn of 2007 by the Norwegian company Opera Software (which is also an ECIS member, but which lodged an individual complaint). Opera wants either Microsoft products to be sold separately, or competing browsers to be installed on Microsoft ware.
The two accusations bear a strong resemblance to the two sections of the previous case, which was ruled on in September. The action promised by Microsoft to comply with the Court ruling “in no way whatsoever” resolves the problems posed by the present complaints, since it refers to different products, said ECIS spokesman Thomas Vinje. The September judgment requires Microsoft to allow its competitors to develop products which are “interoperable” with Windows server, which is used to manage groups of connected computers. In this case, the software itself (Word, Powerpoint, Outlook and others) that has to be made “interoperable”. With regard to “tied sales”, the September ruling required that the sales Windows system and the multimedia software Mediaplayer be separated. Now it is the linking of the Windows system with the Internet Explorer software that is being challenged.
Judging by previous communications, Microsoft could bring forward several arguments in its defence. It has always argued, for example, that the market for the software concerned was working very well. The Commission, however, suspects that the market could be much more competitive and open if Microsoft did not behave in the way that is being challenged. It is the change undergone by the market, and not its absolute state, which is important in European competition law. Microsoft tends to push the fact Internet Explorer is an integral part of the Windows system. A spokesman for the company compares having to sell a version of Windows without Explorer to having to sell shoes without laces, on the basis that this would increase competition for makers of laces who do not make shoes. In addition, it is claimed that some parts of Explorer are essential if Windows is to operate correctly, and not simply for browsing the internet. It is difficult to determine the truth of these arguments. Some experts say it is relatively easy to separate Explorer from Windows, although this would require rewriting part of the software. What is certain is that the Commission will once again wade through a deluge of technical information before it gets to the bottom of this matter. (C.D.)