Microsoft again comes under EU anti-trust probe

Mumbai: Software giant Microsoft Inc, which lost a previous appeal against European competition rules in October 2007, is facing fresh anti-trust investigations by the European Commission.

Brussels launched a fresh probe into the software giant yesterday following complaints by Norwegian Web browser company Opera and a coalition of technology firms, including IBM - the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) - that Microsoft broke competition rules to help its web browser and its Office and Outlook products.

While the earlier case against Microsoft was about its dominance shutting out rivals from its Windows operating system to gain a larger share of the market for web servers, the new investigations support the view of the technology coalition that Microsoft's operating system is blocking a smooth run of rival word processors such as Open Office and free exchange of documents across formats without losing any data.

Microsoft, which lost an appeal against the European court's verdict, which included a fine of almost 500m euros ($745m) in Ocrtober 2007, pledged to give third party programme developers access to information that will allow them to make systems interoperable with Windows.

The current probe into alleged abuse of market dominance would look at whether Microsoft unfairly ties its Explorer internet browser to its Windows operating system.

In a parallel probe, the European Commission will also look at the interoperability of Microsoft software with rival products.

The investigations will go to the heart of Microsoft's near-monopoly business of computer operating systems, word processing, spreadsheets and office collaboration software.

The Commission, however, denied having proof of Microsoft infringing of European competition rules.

"This initiation of proceedings does not imply that the Commission has proof of an infringement," EC said in a statement.

"It only signifies that the Commission will further investigate the case as a matter of priority."

Microsoft said it would cooperate with the latest enquiry.