Kaspersky files antitrust complaints against Microsoft in Europe

Kaspersky Lab has filed antitrust complaints against Microsoft in Europe, accusing the company of making it more difficult to run Kaspersky antivirus software in Windows 10 and favoring a Microsoft-built alternative.

Eugene Kaspersky, co-founder of the Russian cybersecurity firm, said Tuesday that the company had recently filed antitrust complaints with the European Commission and Germany’s Federal Cartel Regulator. Kaspersky had raised the issue with Russia’s antitrust regulator in November.

“We see clearly – and are ready to prove – that Microsoft uses its dominant position in the computer operating system market to fiercely promote its own – inferior – security software,” Kaspersky said.

In many cases, Kaspersky said, customers who update their operating system to Windows 10 from older versions find that their Kaspersky antivirus tools have been deleted or disabled. The company also criticized Microsoft for making it impossible to remove Windows Defender, Microsoft’s own antivirus software, in some editions of Windows.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said that it will answer any questions regulators might have about the Kaspersky complaint.

The company’s “primary objective is to keep customers protected,” Microsoft said in a statement. It remains “confident that the security features of Windows 10 comply with competition laws.”

“We reached out directly to Kaspersky a number of months ago offering to meet directly at an executive level to better understand their concerns, but that meeting has not yet taken place,” Microsoft said.