EU Won't Conduct Parallel Probe of Microsoft, Van Miert Says
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EU Won't Conduct Parallel Probe of Microsoft, Van Miert Says
Bloomberg News
May 26, 1998, 7:33 a.m. PT
EU Won't Conduct Parallel Probe of Microsoft, Van Miert Says
Brussels, May 26 (Bloomberg) -- European Union regulators
won't launch their own probe of Microsoft Corp. to parallel the
antitrust suits filed against the company last week by U.S.
regulators, EU Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert said.
''We're well-advised to follow the case but not to start a
parallel procedure,'' Van Miert told a European Parliament
committee. ''That case is already being dealt with.''
The U.S. Department of Justice and 20 state attorneys-
general last week filed lawsuits against Microsoft on grounds
that the company's Windows 98 operating system, used on 90
percent of personal computers worldwide, forces consumers to use
Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser.
Though the European Commission, the EU's executive agency,
has reviewed some of Microsoft's European distribution
practices, Van Miert said the primary impact of the U.S. case is
in the U.S. market.
The world's biggest maker of personal-computer software
in March changed its contracts with European Internet access
providers, letting them offer browsers other than Internet
Explorer, to quell EU antitrust concerns.
The browser contracts were the only outstanding antitrust
issue between Microsoft and the commission, the commission said
at the time.
Microsoft in November settled another EU antitrust case
by altering an exclusivity clause with rival software maker
Santa Cruz Operation Inc. that forced Santa Cruz to include
Microsoft code in its Unix version and pay royalties to
Microsoft.
Citing successful cooperation between EU and U.S. antitrust
regulators on Microsoft and other cases, Van Miert said he'll
sign an agreement next week in Washington aimed at stepping up
trans-Atlantic coordination.
Under the ''positive comity'' agreement, European
regulators will let their U.S. counterparts take the lead in
reviewing mergers and acquisitions with primary impact in the
U.S. market, even if they also affect EU markets, and vice-
versa.
--Alison Jahncke in the Brussels bureau (32 2) 285 4300/jgn |
