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EU opens Microsoft case
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August 3, 2000: 8:16 a.m. ET
Microsoft faces antitrust complaint for abusing power in operating systems
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Opening the latest legal salvo against Microsoft Corp., the European Commission launched an antitrust case against the company Thursday charging that the U.S. software maker abused its dominant position in PC operating systems software.
The European Commission said it brought the charges after a complaint from Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUN: Research, Estimates) alleged Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates) had breached antitrust rules, by engaging in discriminatory licensing and by refusing to supply essential information about its Windows operating system.
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Microsoft is under legal attack again. CNNfn's Charles Hodson reports from London.
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The EC, the executive arm of the European Union, sent a "statement of objections" to Microsoft "for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the market for personal computer operating systems software by leveraging this power into the market for server software." Servers are computers that run large computer networks.
Microsoft already faces a U.S. federal court order to break into two as punishment for antitrust violations. But the European case is not directly related to the U.S. antitrust case, which was centered on competition in the Internet browser market, said Amelia Torres, a spokeswoman for the European Commission's competition division.
"Here the situation is different," she said in an interview with CNNfn from Brussels. "This is about whether ... they have tried to extend a dominance in one market - the market for PC software - onto another market where there are currently other competitors, where Microsoft is not currently dominant."
Microsoft, meanwhile, expressed confidence the commission will rule in its favor and focused on the motives of its smaller rival. 
"Sun's complaint is based on its desire to gain access to our technical trade secrets," said John Frank, director of law and corporate affairs at Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa, in a statement.
"We are very disappointed by Sun's continued effort to use government intervention to overcome the fact that Microsoft's products are outperforming theirs in the marketplace," he said.
Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft has two months to reply to the commission's allegations. The commission likely then will hold a hearing on the case before issuing a ruling, Torres said.
Failure to satisfy the European Commission's concerns could result in a fine of up to 10 percent of the company's worldwide revenue, although such a large fine has never been imposed in practice in other Commission cases.
Microsoft shares were down 3/8 to 69 in midday trading Thursday on the Nasdaq.
In June, Microsoft lost its long-running case with the federal government and 19 U.S. states alleging that the company broke antitrust law. U.S. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ordered that the software company to split in two. Microsoft is appealing the decision. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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