January 19, 2009

A seemingly continual source of contention when it comes to antitrust accusations, American software titan Microsoft Corp. and its Internet Explorer browser have this week once again fallen within the costly crosshairs of the European Commission.

More pointedly, the commission has accused Redmond-based Microsoft of damaging market competition by including the Internet Explorer platform as standard within the corporation’s dominating Windows operating system.

According to the commission, the default bundling of Internet Explorer, the world’s most popular Web browser, damages consumer choice and also violates competition rules set down within the European Union.

"Microsoft’s tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system harms competition between web browsers," commented the European Commission via an official statement. "[It also] undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice."

The commission’s focus on Internet Explorer arrives as the latest antitrust offensive launched against Microsoft-branded products, a trend that has already seen the hugely influential software maker struck by EU fines totalling approximately $1.4 billion USD (€899 million Euros) during 2008.

In response to the European Commission’s preliminary finding, Microsoft has said it is in the process of evaluating the accusations. It has not ruled out requesting a formal hearing on the matter.

The commission has given Microsoft eight weeks to reply.