European Commission Probes Microsoft Actions

Microsoft Corp. is being probed by the European Commission for half a dozen possible unfair business practices, including an Internet feature, a commission official said.

The commission has initiated on its own - without complaints by rivals - an investigation into a part of Microsoft’s practice on the Internet, the Brussels official said. In addition, the commission will hold hearings later this year into licensing rights granted by Microsoft, the official said.

The moves by the European Union’s executive branch follow probes in the last seven years by the U.S. government of claims of anti-competitive practices by Microsoft. They also follow investigations of Microsoft business practices by the European Commission in the early 1990s.

“It’s parallel to what is being done in the U.S.,” said Karel van Miert, EU competition commissioner, while attending an international antitrust law conference in New York. The companies lodging the complaints are mainly European, though some are American, he said.

“Hopefully something will be done before the end of the year,” van Miert said, saying there’s no deadline for concluding the investigation.

Microsoft spokesman Mark Murray said the company had received a request from the commission about a year ago for information on its Internet Explorer browser. The Redmond, Wash.-based company answered the query and has heard nothing since, he said.

On the question of a hearing, he said Microsoft has received no invitation to appear.

“We understand that the European Commission would like to hold a hearing to resolve a nine-year-old contract issue between Microsoft and another firm,” he said. “This contract and this hearing are totally unrelated to the Internet or Windows. This is not an area that is fundamental to our current business.”

In 1990, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission began a probe of alleged unfair business practices, and closed it without taking action. The Justice Department took over the case in 1993, and the next year negotiated a consent agreement with Microsoft settling charges that the company used unfair licensing terms for its software, stifling competition.

The European Commission had joined the Justice Department case and settled with Microsoft on the same terms.

In 1995, Microsoft scrapped its proposed $2.1 billion acquisition of software company Intuit Inc. rather than fight a Justice Department antitrust lawsuit.

The same year, the Justice Department looked at whether Microsoft was trying to use its near-monopoly on PC operating-system software to move into Internet software and services, and stifle competition in that market. Justice allowed Microsoft to continue shipping Windows 95 software with access to the Microsoft Network.

The Justice Department also examined Microsoft’s $425 million purchase of WebTV Networks Inc., which has developed a system that allows television sets to connect to the Internet, before clearing the acquisition in August. And the Justice Department is examining Microsoft’s $150 million investment in Apple Computer Inc.

Microsoft’s investment in Apple isn’t among the commission’s anti-trust concerns, the official in Brussels said.