EU Fields Windows Vista Antitrust Concerns

Last week, federal and state prosecutors in the United States said that they'd received at least one official complaint about Vista's "Welcome Center," a new interface that appears when users start the PC for the first time, as well as an unspecified number of other complaints. Justice's oversight group, called the Technical Committee, regularly reports to the federal judge charged with making sure Microsoft complies with the 2002 antitrust settlement with the U.S. government, and subsequent settlements with various states.

The complaint filed with the Department of Justice was over Vista's Welcome Center, which appears the first time the machine is turned on, and the fact that PC makers find it difficult to make changes to those screens.

On Monday, European Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd said that the EU's antitrust agency was also closely watching the situation. "Several companies have expressed concerns to the European Commission," he said, "related to Windows Vista." But because no formal complaints have been filed, the EC is "monitoring" the situation. Todd would not confirm that the EC was tracking concerns about the Welcome Center, however.

For its part, said Todd, the EC expects Vista to toe the 2004 line.

"As with any antitrust ruling, the European Commission expects Microsoft to keep the March 2004 ruling in mind when designing software," he said.

He would not commit the EC to an official inquiry on Vista, even if complaints were filed, but said that such a move would be "logical."

Windows Vista, which is scheduled to ship by the end of 2006, is the first operating system that Microsoft has developed under the protocols of the both the U.S. and EC antitrust decisions.

Microsoft faces a Wednesday deadline to reply to another EC ruling, an official objection that claimed the Redmond, Wash.-based developer was not complying with the 2004 ruling. By Feb. 15, Microsoft must offer a written reply to the EC's protest or face a fine of 2 million euros per day ($2.4 million).

Fines could be imposed almost or within several weeks, depending on whether Microsoft requests an oral hearing, as is its right and as it has said it would do at least two times in the past. "An oral hearing would be scheduled within several weeks of Microsoft requesting one in writing," said Todd. That request would have to come by the Feb. 15 deadline.

The EC has said it would backdate the fines to Dec. 15 if Microsoft exhausts its legal appeals. As of Monday, the tally would be 122 million euros ($145.4 million).

In January, Microsoft tried to appease the EC by offering to license the source code for parts of the Windows Server operating system, saying at the time that the code was "the ultimate documentation" for the communication protocols covered by the antitrust decision. The EC's December failure-to-comply filing said that Microsoft had not met the ruling's requirements in providing technical documentation that rivals could use to write competing server software and applications.

"We're not sure that the source code] has any relevance," said Todd, the EC spokesman, on Monday. "The onus is on Microsoft to explain how and why this disclosure answers the Objection. They have to explain if they want us to take that into account."

Todd expects that Microsoft will proffer such an explanation when it presents its written rebuttal on Wednesday.