IBM comes under two anti-trust probes from the EC
26 Jul 2010
IBM the world's largest technology company has come under two antitrust probes from the European Commission (EC) for abusing its dominance in the computer mainframe markets.
The EC today said that it had initiated formal anti-trust investigations against IBM in two separate cases of alleged infringements of EU antitrust rules related to IBM's conduct on the market for mainframe computers.
The first case follows complaints by emulator software vendors T3 and Turbo Hercules, and focuses on IBM allegedly tying its mainframe hardware to its mainframe operating system.
The second is an investigation begun on the EC's own initiative of IBM's alleged discriminatory behaviour towards competing suppliers of mainframe maintenance services.
Mainframes are powerful computers which are used by many large companies and government institutions worldwide to store and process critical business information. The vast majority of corporate data worldwide resides on mainframes.
In 2009 approximately €8.5 billion worldwide and €3 billion in the European Economic Area were spent on new mainframe hardware and operating systems, said the EC.
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