EU Opens Two New Investigations Against Microsoft–One Involving OOXML

“Regulators in the EU today announced that they are opening two
new investigations against Microsoft, this time focusing not on
peripheral functionalities like media players, but on the core of
Microsoft’s business: its operating and office suite software. The
investigations are in response to a recent complaint filed by
Norway browser developer Opera Software ASA and a 2006 complaint
brought by the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS),
which includes Microsoft rivals IBM, Nokia, Sun, RealNetworks and
Oracle among its members.

“Both investigations focus on the benefits that Microsoft gains
by combining features, such as search and Windows Live, into its
operating system. But the investigation sparked by the Opera
complaint also includes some novel and interesting features, based
upon Opera’s contention that Microsoft’s failure to conform
Internet Explorer to prevailing open standards puts its competitors
at a disadvantage (Opera also asks that either IE not be bundled
with Windows, or that other browsers, including its own, should be
included as well, with no browser being preset as a
default)…”

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