POLAND’S WATCHDOG FILES EU COMPLAINT AGAINST MICROSOFT
WARSAW, Aug 21, 2008 (AFP) – Poland’s competition authority announced on Thursday that it had filed a complaint against Microsoft with the EU because it suspects the US software giant of collusion with laptop computer producers.
The regulator’s office said Microsoft appeared to be abusing its market position and breaching competition rules because Poland-based producers were selling laptops that only run the group’s operating systems, such as Windows.
Around a dozen producers had admitted that “the bases of cooperation with Microsoft are so attractive that they have practically no choice,” it said.
“The information gathered in the investigation indicates that there could be an illicit understanding between Microsoft and the producers,” it added.
The office said that it had decided to turn to the European Commission — the European Union’s executive which acts as a competition watchdog — because it suspected such practices could be in place across the 27-nation bloc.
Over recent years, Microsoft has been faulted by the European Commission several times for abusing its software market dominance, racking up a total of 1.68 billion euros (2.47 billion dollars) in fines.
