• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Opera Urges EC to Curb Microsoft Browser Power

Posted on: Friday, 14 December 2007, 06:00 CST

Browser developer Opera Software has filed a complaint with the European Commission, accusing Microsoft of hindering interoperability by not following accepted web standards. It said the company has abused its dominant position by tying Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system.

Oslo, Norway-based Opera said it wants the commission to "take the necessary actions to compel Microsoft to give consumers a real choice and to support open web standards in Internet Explorer."

Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner said that in addition to promoting the free choice of individual consumers, his company is a champion of open web standards and cross-platform innovation. "We cannot rest until we've brought fair and equitable options to consumers worldwide," he said.

Opera's complaint is the culmination of wide criticism of Microsoft's failure to support open standards such as cascading style sheets and document object model while developing proprietary extensions such as its ActiveX controls.

Asked why it had taken this moment to make a complaint when gripes over IE go back to the days of Netscape, an Opera official said that there had never been a better moment. He said the browser is the most used application on a PC and is increasingly being used to access other applications.

Opera has called upon the EC to force Microsoft to unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows or carry alternative browsers pre-installed on the desktop. It wants the EC to insist that the company follows open standards accepted by the web-authoring communities.

It attacked Microsoft's "embrace, extend, and extinguish" strategy, saying the company's unilateral control over standards in some markets created "a de facto standard that was more costly to support, harder to maintain, and technologically inferior and that can even expose users to security risks."

Jason Hoida, Opera's deputy general counsel, said the European Court of First Instance confirmed in September that Microsoft had illegally tied Windows Media Player to Windows.

"We are simply asking the Commission to apply these same, clear principles to the Internet Explorer tie, a tie that has even more profound effects on consumers and innovation," he said. "We are confident that the Commission understands the significance of the Internet Explorer tie and will take the necessary actions to restore competition and consumer choice in the browser market."

A Microsoft spokesperson said computer users have complete freedom of choice to use and set as default any browser they wish, including Opera. He said PC manufacturers could also pre-install any browser as the default on any Windows machine they sell. He said Internet Explorer has been an integral part of the Windows operating system for over a decade and supports a wide range of web standards.

"We will of course cooperate with any inquiries into these issues," he said, "but we believe the inclusion of the browser into the operating system benefits consumers, and that consumers and PC manufacturers already are free to choose to use any browsers they wish."

Microsoft has already suffered at the hands of Europe, and in October gave up its struggle against competition regulators when it said it would no longer appeal a landmark 2004 antitrust ruling against it. It agreed to substantially slash its patent and interoperability licensing fees, and also offer interoperability information on terms compatible with open source licenses.

Earlier this year the European Court of First Instance's rejected Microsoft's appeal of the 2004 Commission ruling, which found it guilty of competition law violations and fined it almost 500m euros ($735m).

Source: Datamonitor

More News in this Category