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The Two New Investigations of Microsoft by the EU Commission - Updated 4Xs

By Pamela Jones et al.

I thought it would be useful to put all the important information about the two new investigations of Microsoft by the EU Commission here. First, Opera's complaint to the EU Commission was deemed worth following through on. That is significant, indeed, but the ECIS complaint about Office is even bigger to FOSS, particularly with the Microsoft MSOOXML vote coming in February. One of the issues the EU Commission says it will be investigating is whether Office Open XML as implemented in Office is "sufficiently interoperable with competitors' products".

Heh heh. Maybe not.

You might find the proposed agreement [PDF] between Microsoft Greece and the Greek government that NO OOXML just publicized of interest. I would analyze it a bit differently, but it certainly shows a kind of bartering for business that no competitor could afford to match. (Note something similar in India.) Put that together with this study which the press release indicates shows an environment ripe for corruption of votes, and it raises in my mind questions about competition.

But on to the latest. First, here's the EU Commission press release and here's ECIS's statement [PDF]. It will be on this page shortly, I believe. Opera will no doubt have a statement too, and when it is released will be here.

Full post as published by Groklaw on January 14, 2008 (boomark / email).