EU opens new anti-trust probe of Microsoft
Last Updated: Monday, January 14, 2008 | 1:33 PM ET
CBC News
Fresh off a major victory against Microsoft Corp., antitrust regulators for the European Union are pressing against the software company with two additional investigations.
The European Commission on Monday announced it has launched formal probes into Microsoft's business practices, this time dealing with how the company distributes and markets its Internet Explorer web browser and its Office desktop software.
The commission said it is going to look at whether Microsoft is harming other competing browsers by bundling Internet Explorer with its Windows operating system, which is installed on the vast majority of computers in use. The EC will also examine whether the company hurts other makers of office software by controlling the file format used to store documents.
Microsoft said in a statement it would co-operate with the investigations and that it was committed to ensuring it was "in full compliance with European law."
An EU court in September ruled that Microsoft had abused its monopoly position to shut out other makers of operating systems and applied a 497-million euro fine, the largest it had ever issued, which the company agreed to pay. That case stemmed from a 2004 charge by Sun Microsystems that Microsoft had withheld computer code needed to create interoperability between machines using different operating systems.
The new probes stem from two separate complaints. Norway's Opera Software last month filed a complaint that alleged Microsoft was holding back developers from making programs that work with each other "by not following accepted web standards."
The Office complaint comes from a 2006 filing by the European Committee for Interoperable Systems, a group of Microsoft rivals led by International Business Machines Corp. Microsoft refuses to "disclose interoperability information across a broad range of products," according to the group's complaint.
Share Tools
Top News Headlines
- Canadian woman continues tweeting her way to the top of Everest
- Sandra Leduc is taking a second run at Mount Everest's summit after a deadly storm forced her back down the mountain and killed four others on Sunday. The Canadian lawyer and government worker is tweeting her progress along the way. more »
- Employment Insurance review boards to be scrapped
- The federal government is scrapping two review boards used by people appealing decisions made about their employment insurance. more »
- Teens share bullying tales in confession booth
- Raw stories about bullying emerged when a video booth was set up inside a Quebec high school. more »
- Canada ending 'Buffalo shuffle' for visas, closing consulate
- The federal government is shutting the Canadian consulate in Buffalo less than two years after costly renovations, while dropping a requirement for visas to be renewed outside the country, CBC News has learned. more »
Latest Technology & Science News Headlines
- SpaceX capsule docked at International Space Station
- The privately bankrolled unmanned SpaceX Dragon capsule has been securely bolted to the Harmony module of the International Space Station. . more »
- Bonavista, N.L., 'coyote' was really wolf, tests confirm
- Wolves have not been seen in Newfoundland since around 1930 and were believed to have been hunted to extinction on the island, but genetic tests have confirmed that an 82-pound animal shot on the Bonavista Peninsula in March was, in fact, a wolf. more »
- Once-rare argus butterfly thriving thanks to climate change
- Global warming is threatening the existence of many species, such as the giant polar bear, but in the case of Britain's brown argus butterfly, it took a species in trouble and made it thrive. more »
- How curry spice helps the immune system kill bacteria
- A spice used in curry dishes helps to prevent infection and now scientists think they've got a lead on how. more »
Bob McDonald's Blog
Government to shut down unique fresh water research area May. 25, 2012 12:31 PM The Experimental Lakes Area research facility in Northern Ontario is being closed down after 44 years of providing invaluable data to scientists in Canada and internationally, a decision that has stunned researchers and environmental groups.
Quirks & Quarks
- May 26: Before the Lights Go Out May. 25, 2012 4:09 PM A new book, "Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us", suggests that the unpredictable, unplanned, ad-hoc way our energy use developed in the past will shape our energy future.
Latest Features
- Aylmer triple stabbing leads to first-degree murder charges
- Everest victim's family asks for government help
- Reclaiming the dead on Mt. Everest
- Employment Insurance review boards to be scrapped
- Teens share bullying tales in confession booth
- Canada ending 'Buffalo shuffle' for visas, closing consulate
- Conservatives move again to have robocalls suits tossed
- Workers' EI history to affect claim under new rules
- Double-lung recipient dances on Ellen show

