Russia Claims Microsoft Breached Antitrust Laws

A Russian anti-monopoly agency initiated a probe of Microsoft Corp because it supposedly curtailed supplies of the Windows XP operating system in Russia. 

The angency said it suspected Microsoft had breached anti-monopoly legislation by preventing Windows XP from being distributed to Russia both separately and pre-installed on personal computers.  Additionally, its pricing policy has been slashed on the product. 

"Analysis of the market for various operating systems shows that the transfer to the new Windows Vista operating system is occurring while demand for the previous operating system, Windows XP, continues," the angency told Reuters.

"Demand for separately packaged and pre-installed versions of Windows XP is also confirmed by retailers and the number of orders from the government."

The case will be considered on July 24, 2009, the agency said. 

An official inquiry from the anti-monopoly service has yet to be obtained, the Microsoft office in Moscow indicated. 

"We (have) always answered antimonopoly service questions in full and intend to continue this practice in future," Marina Levina of Microsoft said. 

Although it is common practice for the anti-monopoly service to stay closely in touch with Russian companies, it is rare that full-blown investigations are conducted. 

Previous antitrust claims share no similarities with this suit against Microsoft.  A decade ago, the multinational technological computer company was the object of a U.S. antitrust lawsuit in the United States, resulting in a fine of 500 million euros ($709 million) by the European Commission in 2004 for anti-competitive practices in media player and server software.

Microsoft was fined again by the commission for non-compliance, costing them 900 million euros ($1.3 billion), however the software giant is appealing against that judgment. 

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