European Union regulators were skeptical Thursday on Microsoft Corp.’s offer to share more information about its products and technology, saying it has seen four similar statements before.
Microsoft’s announcement doesn’t touch on possible monopoly abuse in the past, it said, nor does it touch on allegations that it illegally gives away its Internet Explorer browser with the Windows desktop operating system to damage rivals.
The European Commission is currently investigating a complaint from rivals that Microsoft does not share essential information on the Office word processing program that would help create compatible products.
It said it would check if the company’s offer complies with antitrust rules as part of that probe it launched in January, five months after an EU court upheld European regulators on Microsoft’s legal challenge against a EU497 million (US$613 million) antitrust fine.
“The Commission would welcome any move toward genuine interoperability,” the EU executive said. “Nonetheless, the Commission notes that today’s announcement follows at least four similar statements by Microsoft in the past on the importance of interoperability.”
The EU’s new probe into how well Microsoft’s products work with others was triggered by a complaint from the European Committee for Interoperable Systems — a group representing IBM, Nokia Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc., RealNetworks Inc. and Oracle Corp.
It will examine whether Microsoft withheld information from companies that wanted to make products compatible with its software — including Office word processing, spreadsheet and office management tools, some server products and Microsoft’s push into the Internet under the name of the .NET framework.
Since Microsoft supplies the software to the vast majority of home and office computers, rivals complain that refusal to give them interoperability information shuts the door on a huge potential market.
ECIS was also doubtful on the Microsoft offer. “The world needs a permanent change in Microsoft’s behavior, not just another announcement,” it…