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Microsoft faces a possible antitrust case on Vista TMCnet Contributing Editor Nearly three years after a landmark antitrust ruling against Microsoft (News - Alert), the company finds itself on the verge of a possible clash with the European Union on the occasion of the release of Windows Vista.
After countless delays and postponements, Microsoft Vista will finally find its way to the PCs of home users in Europe on January 30. The copies to the business users have already been dispatched. While Microsoft is finally releasing an improved version of its operating systems after five years, its rivals are preparing for another battle on the IT giant. Having won an antitrust case against Microsoft in 2004, they are eying one more victory.
Simon Awde, the chairman of the ECIS trade association feels that with the release of Vista, Microsoft is ignoring the fundamental principles of the commission’s March 2004 decision. ECIS trade association consists of other technology giants such as Nokia, Oracle and IBM (News - Alert). The association had already lodged a complaint against Microsoft Vista in February 2006 and last month, they updated their complaint.
It seems Microsoft’s dominant leadership in the market has not gone down well with the EU authorities as they imposed a record 497 million euros (642 million dollars) in March 2004 in an antitrust ruling. In addition to this, the EU had also ordered Microsoft to release a Windows version without the Media Player and ordered the company to take off the software protocols that made the operation of the rival software a cumbersome process.
Microsoft retaliated by challenging the ruling in the second-highest court in April. The hearing is still going on and the judges are expected to hand down a decision this year. Meanwhile, EU has been fining Microsoft on a daily basis for non-compliance of its demand and Microsoft has challenged this fine too. If the judges rule against Microsoft, the company will have to shell out an additional 280.5 million euros or more in form of fines.
Details of possible antitrust case
The rivals of the company feel that with the release of Vista, Microsoft has built certain software that makes it difficult for the other applications to coexist with the Microsoft operating system. With more than 90% of the world’s computer users using Windows operating systems, this could ring disaster for Microsoft’s competitors. Microsoft’s competitors view this as a deliberate plan by the company to extend its dominance in the market.
Another claim made by ECIS is that a computer language Microsoft has written to publish Web pages is dependent on Windows platform. Microsoft intends to replace the current publishing language, HTML
 , with this language and this will make life difficult for people who use other operating systems. Microsoft will also release a new document file format, which will operate seamlessly only on Windows, unlike other open document file formats.
As Microsoft and the ECIS gear up for another round of battle, the release of Microsoft’s most awaited OS is shrouded in controversies and confusions. But Microsoft will find solace from the fact that the European Commission is unlikely to open a new antitrust case against it at least until EU court gives its decision on the regulators’ 2004 ruling.
Raju Shanbhag is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
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