Microsoft’s EU legal troubles continue

More legal disputes await Microsoft in Brussels as new accusations of unfair competition were filed by the UK Educational Agency on 13 May. At the same time, the IT giant has decided to appeal the huge fine imposed by the European Commission last February for alleged abuse of its dominant market position.

After having attracted criticism from software developers and competitors, the new Microsoft Office Open XML document format is now being attacked at European level, this time over its educational merit. 

The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA), a government advisory agency, confirmed on 13 May that it had filed a complaint in Brussels against Microsoft’s “anti-competitive licensing practices”.

BECTA had already attacked the US software giant in the UK, denouncing its business practices to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), the British competition regulator. The agency considered that the lack of compatibility between Microsoft’s OOXML document standard and alternative codes, such as ODF, were deliberate and acted as a barrier to educational and training institutions which are active in closing the so-called digital divide.

BECTA’s original complaint, which is still awaiting an official response from the OFT, focused on the interoperability limits of Microsoft’s Office 2007. In a statement issued on 12 May, the agency said the programme’s interoperability “would be compounded by Microsoft’s decision to offer native ‘out of the box’ support for its own OOXML format”. Moreover, according to BECTA, the Redmond company would “refuse to offer equivalent support for the ISO-approved Open Document Format (ODF),” which is increasingly used by its competitors.

The new complaint will give the Commission additional ammunition for its ongoing enquiry into the interoperability of the OOXML format. Although OOXML was recently recognised as an international standard by the Geneva-based International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), the format risks facing new procedures in Brussels over competition concerns (EURACTIV 03/04/08).

Reacting to BECTA’s complaint, CompTIA (an industrial association of which Microsoft is a member) regretted its “striking similarities to complaints made by the software company’s direct competitors”. In a statement published today (14 May), CompTIA underlines that “the working ICT marketplace fosters immense choice and solutions, which boost the overall interoperability and widespread use of competing ICT products and services”.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s legal troubles are expected to get heavier after the IT giant decided on 9 May to appeal the latest record fine of €899 million imposed by Brussels in February 2008. The fine was imposed by EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes and related to the “unreasonable” fees imposed by the company on its software licenses between 2004 and 2007 and the release of information on its products (EURACTIV 28/02/08).

In a statement, Microsoft said it was filing the appeal “in a constructive effort to seek clarity from the court”. “We will not be saying anything further,” it added.

In 2004, the Commission imposed an initial mega-fine on Microsoft, opening a protracted legal dispute which only ended in September 2007, when the European Court of Justice upheld the Commission’s decision to condemn the company for abuse of its dominant market position.

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