Microsoft: Antitrust Talks with EU

What? Microsoft and Antitrust talks?  Sure is.  Once again, on of the issues is the bundling of Internet Explorer into Windows, but this time it’s in the European Union.

European Union (EU) officials are currently in talks with Microsoft over several regulatory probes, according to Bloomberg, one of which, is aimed at Microsoft’s bundling of Internet Explorer with its Windows operating system.

Earlier this year, the EU issued a preliminary finding that the inclusion of Internet Explorer within Windows is a violation of European antitrust law and has been looking into a variety of options, including forcing Microsoft to also include competing browsers within Windows.  Sound familiar?  In 1998, Microsoft was under investigation for the same thing in the U.S. when a set of civil actions known as United States v. Microsoft were filed by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and 20 U.S. States.

In response, Microsoft announced that they planned to remove Internet Explorer from versions of Windows 7 that ship within the EU.  It would then be the responsibility of the PC manufacturers and consumers to install a browser for inclusion with the operating system which could be Internet Explorer 8 or one of its competitors.

This action by Microsoft is similar to what resulted in 2005 when the European Commission ordered Microsoft to release a version of Windows XP that did not include media player.  According to an article on CNET, however, a spokeswoman from the Commission has declined to comment on if there have been discussions about Microsoft would offer a version of Windows with Internet Explorer and one without.