A group of the typical Microsoft rivals, including Oracle, Sun, RealNetworks and IBM, have lodged yet another antitrust complaint against Microsoft with the European Union.
Looks to me that the group, calling itself the European Committee for Interoperable Systems, has realized how much easier it is to beat Microsoft when Europe’s courts have your back than on store shelves.
The European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) said in a statement that Microsoft “threatens to deny enterprises and individual consumers real choice.”
The complaint asks the Commission to put an end to the practices that the group says have hemmed in its members.
“ECIS deeply regrets that strong antitrust law enforcement appears to be the only way to stop the sustained anti-competitive behavior of Microsoft,” Simon Awde, chairman of the group, said in a statement.
Microsoft said IBM and some other competitors were attempting to use the regulatory process to their business advantage.
“When faced with innovation, they choose litigation,” the statement said, adding it would respond quickly to any eventual request from the Commission relating to the complaint.
ECIS said that limits which were placed on Microsoft in the 2004 antitrust court ruling – now under appeal by the company – needed to be rapidly and fully enforced.
The group said Microsoft Office software was one example of a Microsoft product that did not permit rivals to interoperate properly with the Windows operating system, preventing them from competing.
“It prevents them from achieving full interoperability,” said Thomas Vinje, a lawyer for the group.
Give it up. You guys are all dinosaurs, and Microsoft beat you years ago. Try teaming up with some real competition, like Google or Yahoo.
Mary Jo Foley says:
It’s not clear yet what differentiates the latest suit from the most recent one
Exactly.
Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.
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