European Union to Investigate Microsoft

As its legal woes in the United States come to a head, Microsoft is facing new legal threats from across the Atlantic. European antitrust regulators, acting on complaints from unspecified end users and competitors, are investigating charges that integration between Microsoft’s desktop and server operating systems prevents Microsoft desktops from working well with competitor’s server products. In addition, in a separate matter, Swiss authorities are investigating charges that Microsoft overcharges Swiss consumers for its operating systems and Office suite.

While European authorities did not identify the complainants in their investigation of Microsoft’s desktop-server integration, Microsoft says they were probably initiated by Sun, which last year filed a complaint with European authorities.

The European case is similar, but not identical, to the U.S. antitrust case. The charge against Microsoft in Europe relates to its market “dominance” rather than to a monopoly, and legal experts say the dominance charge is easier to prove. Among other things, the European complainants need not prove that consumers have been harmed by Microsoft’s action, but only that competition has been harmed.