November 24, 2024

CCIA Files Antitrust Complaint against Microsoft

The Computer and Communications Industry Association, a trade group, has filed a lengthy antitrust complaint against Microsoft with European authorities. The complaint centers on allegedly anticompetitive aspects of Windows XP. Here is an AP story; here is CCIA’s summary of the complaint.

According to CCIA, they are accusing Microsoft of:

Bundling multiple Microsoft products with the Windows [XP] operating system;
Biasing the user interface and operation of Windows XP and the products bundled with Windows to advantage Microsoft’s own software and services;
Imposing Microsoft proprietary technologies, protocols, and formats;
Employing abusive licensing and other exclusionary practices vis-a-vis PC OEMs to foreclose the PC OEM distribution channel to competing products; and
Refusing to disclose the document formats for the programs in Microsoft’s Office suite of personal productivity applications.