The Commission is compiling a competition case against Microsoft
based in part on its belief that the company's software is not
interoperable enough with competing firms' products.
Microsoft said last week that it would increase the amount of
information that it would make available about its technology to
developers of other products. But the Commission expressed
scepticism about how much the company would change.
"The Commission notes that today's announcement follows at least
four similar statements by Microsoft in the past on the importance
of interoperability," said a Commission statement.
"In the course of its ongoing interoperability investigation,
the Commission will therefore verify whether Microsoft is complying
with EU antitrust rules, whether the principles announced today
would end any infringement were they implemented in practice, and
whether or not the principles announced today are in fact
implemented in practice," it said.
Microsoft last week said that it would give away information
that it used to charge for, including some computer code and
documentation instructing programmers how to make software work
with its Windows operating system and Office productivity
software.
It said it would charge royalties on the sales of software built
using the information, rather than an upfront fee.
The Commission won a major court victory against Microsoft last
year when a court backed its 2004 competition law ruling against
the company in which it fined Microsoft a record-breaking €497
million.
That fine was for abusing its dominant position in the software
market, and in part for not making its technology interoperable
enough.
"In its Microsoft judgment of 17 September 2007 the Court of
First Instance established clear principles for dominant companies
with regard to interoperability disclosures and the tying of
separate software products," said the Commission statement.
Microsoft chose not to appeal that court ruling, and the
Commission launched a new, very similar, case in January, alleging
that Microsoft was again flouting interoperability rules and tying
its own software to its operating system in a way that stifled
competition.
"One of these investigations focuses on the alleged illegal
refusal by Microsoft to disclose sufficient interoperability
information across a broad range of products, including information
related to its Office suite, a number of its server products, and
also in relation to the so called .NET Framework and on the
question whether Microsoft's new file format Office Open XML, as
implemented in Office, is sufficiently interoperable with
competitors' products," said the Commission.
