Microsoft's lawyers are working double time in preparing to answer antitrust charges overseas, and Wednesday asked the European Commission for a formal hearing about the matter.
The EU began an investigation in December 2007 following a complaint concerning unfair competition brought by Oslo-based Opera Software ASA. Other anti-Microsoft crusaders joining the fight include the Mozilla Foundation, Google and the industry group Free Software Foundation Europe.
The EU asked Microsoft to respond to the charges in January 2008, after it released its preliminary statement of objections, and said in a statement that Microsoft's bundling "undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice."
The Commission also said that it might impose a fine on Microsoft, requiring the company to "cease the abuse and impose a remedy that would restore genuine consumer choice and enable competition on the merits."
In March, the EU gave the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant a deadline extension so it could ready its response to charges that it illegally bundled its Web browser Explorer with Windows operating systems.
Earlier this month, the EU formally recognized similar complaints by the European Committee for Interoperable Systems, which said that the bundled package was found on more than 90 percent of all personal computers.
"This is an important case to ensure that browsers can compete on the merits and that consumers have a true choice in the software they use to access the World Wide Web," said EU spokesman Thomas Vinje, in a statement.
"Smaller, more innovative browser developers need a level playing field. That is why there is such broad support for the Commission's preliminary findings of abuse."
