“An organisation that represents some of the world’s biggest tech firms is urging the EU to investigate the dominance of Microsoft’s Windows XP software. The complaint was filed by the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), an organisation that counts Nokia, Eastman Kodak, Fujitsu, NTT Communications, Sun Microsystems, AOL Time Warner and Oracle Corp among its members. Analysts are saying this new move could complicate Microsoft’s attempt to settle existing anti-trust charges in the EU.
In their official complaint, which was secretly filed on 31 January, Microsoft’s rivals said that the company’s newest operating system, Windows XP, is a threat to tech industry competition on all fronts, from mobile communications to Web services. The CCIA also says that Microsoft has violated the European Union Treaty’s Article 82, which administers anti-trust matters. This violation comes in the form of the company’s bundling of other products with Windows XP, including music editing and video-editing software.
‘Microsoft’s overwhelming dominance — and its continued abuse of that dominance — reaches into every corner of Europe and harms virtually every business and consumer who uses a computer,’ the group said in its grievance, according to reports.
To remedy its complaints, CCIA, in its 260-page protest, has asked European regulators to unbundle a broad array of Microsoft products that is currently under consideration by the EU. These include the company’s instant-messaging software, e-mail software, Internet software and movie making software. The document also seeks to force Microsoft to carry Java technology in Windows, use open standards and protocols for its products, and make public its licensing terms for those products, ” writes Matthew Clark for electricnews.net. Full article here.
