Microsoft in Talks to Diffuse EU Antitrust Suits

Posted 07/08/2009 at 7:04am | by Paul Lilly

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Looking to avoid any further fines from the European Union, which has been anything but bashful in levying big money fines against big money corporations, Microsoft is in talks to settle two additional probes that could potentially add to the $2.34 billion it has already had to fork over from previous cases.

The most pressing matter is a case over Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, in which Microsoft has previously stated it would ship a version of Windows 7 for distribution in Europe with IE8 stripped out. This came in response to the commission saying it was considering forcing Microsoft to offer consumers a choice of browsers when configuring a new PC. Microsoft canceled a June hearing in the browser case, saying not enough EU and national competition authorities would be able to attend.

"It's in their interest to settle before the EU has to impose sanctions," said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Kirkland, Washington-based Directions on Microsoft. "That way at least Microsoft has some control over the actions they're going to take if they can agree in private."

But the browser issue isn't the only thing the EU is concerned with. The EU is also looking into complaints that Microsoft doesn't provide formatting and other information for rival products to work with Microsoft Office software, such as Word and Excel, Bloomberg reports.

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