EU Wants to Cut IE from Windows

The European Union is now complaining about Microsoft's bundling of IE with Windows, stemming from a complaint by Opera in 2007. They claim that Microsoft is unfairly using its market dominance to distribute Internet Explorer. This is the statement they issued:

The evidence gathered during the investigation leads the Commission to believe that the tying of Internet Explorer with Windows, which makes Internet Explorer available on 90 percent of the world's PCs, distorts competition on the merits between competing web browsers insofar as it provides Internet Explorer with an artificial distribution advantage which other web browsers are unable to match.

The Commission is concerned that through the tying, Microsoft shields Internet Explorer from head to head competition with other browsers which is detrimental to the pace of product innovation and to the quality of products which consumers ultimately obtain.

In addition, the Commission is concerned that the ubiquity of Internet Explorer creates artificial incentives for content providers and software developers to design websites or software primarily for Internet Explorer which ultimately risks undermining competition and innovation in the provision of services to consumers.

It seems similar to anti-trust lawsuits from long ago, that completely failed against Microsoft. Microsoft has yet to issue a public statement on this matter. However, the EU are saying that this case is completely unrelated to the 2002 Washinton D.C. antitrust lawsuits against Microsoft. Will the case go through and win? Unlikely. However, the EU is willing to take serious measures, and possibly measures similar to what they did with Windows Media Center.
But let's not forget that EU has some support from Opera. Opera's chief executive has long been a Microsoft Critic, and will undoubtedly find some excuses to take IE off of Windows, and maybe even other programs too. It's unlikely for Opera to really get any market share from this anyway, because firefox is the 2nd most popular browser in Europe with over 30% share. Perhaps the EU shouldn't really be chasing microsoft now, seeing as they've already decided to unbundle some good programs on Windows 7, whereas apple and linux are just stuffing as many apps as they can.

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