On January 17, the European Commission’s antitrust agency confirmed that it has once again charged Microsoft with breaking competition laws, stating that the company’s Internet Explorer browser is having an unfair advantage over other browsers, because it’s present on all PCs with Windows OS installed on them.

Furthermore, software companies always try to make products in order to be compatible with Internet Explorer. The complaint was filed by Opera browser representatives. Microsoft said the day before that it had received a formal statement of objections from the EC outlining the commission’s preliminary findings in this case.

Microsoft is still studying the charges before deciding whether and how to reply. The company has eight weeks to file a response and can request a hearing before the EC, which hasn’t released its full statement of objections yet.

What’s interesting is that T3 Technologies, a small mainframe maker in Tampa, has also filed an antitrust complaint, this time against IBM. The company accuses the giant software and hardware maker of refusing to sell its z/OS operating system to T3 customers.

EC spokesman Jonathan Todd said that the commission was already analyzing the mainframe market, but it’s not a formal investigation. It might become one if the EC believes that there have been abuses.
In response, IBM rejected T3’s claims and accused the upstart vendor of trying to violate its intellectual property rights. However, it’s hard to believe T3 has been indeed tricked or discriminated by IBM, as the company has no obvious reason to do this. It remains to be seen if IBM will prove guilty and if other major companies will face antitrust claims.