The European Commission has declined to comment about the latest
twist in the US government case against Microsoft, although an
official with the Competition Office said the European case is
"factually and legally different" from that of the US.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) and state attorneys general
informed Microsoft on 6 September that they would not seek a
break-up of the company or pursue the issue of whether the software
maker illegally tied its Internet Explorer (IE) browser to the
Windows operating system.
At the start of September, however, the European Commission
combined two separate antitrust investigations into Microsoft, and
added new accusations that by bundling its Media Player music and
video streaming software with Windows, the company is abusing its
dominant position.
The new strands in the EU case resemble the discarded US claim that
Microsoft bundled IE with Windows; however, the official denied
that the two authorities had cooperated on the matter. "In merger
rulings there is closer cooperation, but with antitrust [cases]
there are limits to the amount of cooperation, such as exchanging
information," the official said.
Exchanging sensitive corporate information between regulators
requires the permission of the companies involved and John Frank,
Microsoft's senior corporate attorney in Europe, said the company
had not been asked for such permission.
In 1994, the European Commission and the DOJ jointly forced
Microsoft to abandon its licensing agreements making PC makers pay
royalties on PCs regardless of whether or not they had Microsoft
software pre-installed. At the time, the Commission hailed the
joint ruling as a model of how to tackle giant companies.