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Opera Software, a Norwegian company whose web browser accounts for slightly less than 2 per cent of online traffic, said it had filed a new complaint with the Commission, in which it accuses Microsoft of abusing a dominant position by tying its own Internet Explorer browser to the Windows operating system.
Opera also complains that Microsoft is hindering interoperability by not following accepted web standards.

The case marks the first time a competitor has tried to take advantage of a recent landmark legal ruling to try to limit Microsoft’s business practices. In the September judgment, Europe’s Court of First Instance upheld an earlier Commission decision that Microsoft had unlawfully abused its dominant market position, over the tying of its Media Player software to Windows.

A Commission official confirmed the Opera complaint and said it would be studied carefully.
Microsoft said it would co-operate with any Commission inquiry but added: “We believe the inclusion of the browser into the operating system benefits consumers, and that consumers and PC manufacturers already are free to choose to use any browsers they wish.”

The Opera complaint harks back to the “Browser Wars” of a decade ago, which led to US antitrust action against Microsoft. Although the US did not object to Microsoft’s practice of tying its browser to Windows, it found the company had abused its market power in defeating Netscape.
Remedies agreed were designed to make it easier for consumers to select different browsers to run on Windows, and to make sure PC makers were free to pre-install any default browser.

The case has the backing of some of Microsoft’s biggest rivals through the European Committee for Interoperable Systems , a body that includes IBM, Oracle, Sun Microsystems and Adobe

Thomas Vinje, ECIS’s legal counsel, said: “Browsers are the gateway to the internet. Microsoft seeks to control this gateway.”

Opera said it was asking for either an unbundling of Explorer from Windows and/or the pre-installation of alternative web browsers on desktop computers, with a requirement that the company adheres to open web standards.

Source: Financial Times