EU Accuses Microsoft…Again

The EU is after Microsoft again, this time accusing it of stifling competition by bundling Internet Explorer with the Windows OS.

It’s a different year, but the same old scenario, as the European Commission has decided to pursue Microsoft through the courts again. This time the issue is stifling competition by bundling the Internet Explorer browser with the Windows operating system. That, they say, infringes EU rules by undermining customer choice, and they want it to end, opening the market for other browsers.

In a statement on Friday, the Commission said:

"Microsoft’s tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system harms competition between web browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice."

Microsoft has eight weeks to respond. The company has said it’s studying the EC’s preliminary findings, and hasn’t ruled out requesting a formal hearing, according to the BBC.

It was only in February last year that that the EC imposed one of it’s largest-ever fines on Microsoft, $1.4 billion, for failing to comply with a 2004 decision that it was abusing its market position.