EU brings antitrust charges against MS
The European Union has added to legally beleaguered Microsoft's troubles, bringing new antitrust charges against the company. According to the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, Microsoft is using its strength in the OS market to control the server software business. The action has come upon the heels of a formal complaint brought by Sun Microsystems that alleges Microsoft is breaching EU antitrust rules by denying Windows OS interface information to its competitors.
Microsoft, however, says all the information Sun needs is freely available from book stores and the Web and that the California company simply wants to, "gain access to our technical trade secrets." If the EU decides to punish Microsoft for its business practices, it could charge the company as much as 10 percent of its annual international sales. The European Union is already investigating the company based on pricing policies for Windows 2000.
For more information on this case, read dailynews.yahoo.com, theregister.co.uk, or thestandard.com.
