EU regulators said Thursday they would study Microsoft Corp.’s
announcement that its software update next year will work with rival
document formats to see if it would allow customers to use a wider
range of software.
The European Commission is again investigating
whether Microsoft has illegally refused to supply competitors with
information they need to make products compatible with Microsoft
Windows – the operating system used by most computers worldwide.
This
possibility of further fines comes on the heels of EU antitrust action
against Microsoft, which resulted in the company handing over US$2.63
billion (euro1.7 billion) in penalties.
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Microsoft said Wednesday
that it would start allowing Office 2007 users to save files in the
OpenDocument Format, or ODF, when it releases a service pack 2 update
in the first half of 2009 and set ODF as a default storage format.
The
EU’s executive arm said it had ”taken note” of the announcement and
”would welcome any step that Microsoft took toward genuine
interoperability, more consumer choice and less vendor lock-in.”
”In
its ongoing antitrust investigation concerning interoperability with
Microsoft Office, the commission will investigate whether the announced
support of ODF in Office leads to better interoperability and allows
consumers to process and exchange their documents with the software
product of their choice,” it said.
The probe sees the EU wade
into a dispute between Microsoft and open source developers backed by
International Business Machines Corp. by looking into Microsoft’s open
format for archived documents – Office Open XML, or OOXML.
Microsoft
said it developed the format to offer a more useful and varied
alternative to the nonproprietary OpenDocument Format created by open
source developers and used by IBM, Sun Microsystems and others.
Microsoft
said it continues to work with the open source community on OOXML-ODF
translator and recognized that customers cared most about ”real-world
interoperability in the marketplace.”
Critics of OOXML say it
locks out competitors, giving Microsoft customers no choice but to keep
buying Microsoft programs forever. The open source community claims
that Microsoft is trying to supplant ODF and stem the potential threat
of open source software eating into its market share.
The
Washington, D.C.-based ODF Alliance said it was skeptical of
Microsoft’s promise of support for ODF, saying the proof would be
whether the support would equal to that offered to OOXML.
”Until
Microsoft enables Office users to create and save in ODF by default as
easily and fully as in Microsoft’s own formats, governments will
continue to adopt a ‘buyer beware’ attitude,” it said in a statement.
The
European Committee for Interoperable Systems, or ECIS – the group that
triggered the EU’s new probe by complaining about OOXML shutting out
ODF – alleged that the Microsoft announcement was ”still playing for
time to further consolidate its super-dominant position.”
”It
is particularly striking that all of Microsoft’s latest policy
statements on interoperability are still in the future tense, as though
these were difficult technical objectives,” it said. ”They are not.”
ECIS represents IBM, Nokia Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc., RealNetworks Inc. and Oracle Corp. among others.
Despite
a chorus of complaints, OOXML was last month approved as an
international standard that paves the way for it to be picked up by the
IT departments of governments and large corporations.
Microsoft’s
long antitrust battle with Brussels looks set to roll on after its
appeal this month of a US$1.3 billion (euro899 million) fine the
European Commission imposed in February because the company had failed
to obey a 2004 antitrust order telling it to open up more to rivals.
The
software giant last year lost an EU court challenge against regulators’
2004 decision. It promised to drop further appeals to that case and
abide by the judgment.
The EU’s antitrust chief, Neelie Kroes, said a precedent had been set by Microsoft for its future behavior in other areas.