Microsoft Faces EU Antitrust Probe Over Web-Brower Choice
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) faces a European Union antitrust probe into allegations it is failing to offer consumers a choice of Internet browsers under terms of a previous settlement with regulators. — EU Competition Commission …
Context & Ripple Effects
This probe closes a loop that opened with Opera's 2007 antitrust complaint against Microsoft over browser tying in Europe, which produced the 2009 settlement built around the user-choice screen celebrated on Google's policy blog in February 2009. The Commission's allegation is not a new conduct theory but non-compliance with those existing commitments — the same ground the NYT flagged back in January 2008 when Microsoft's European inquiries multiplied.
First-order effects
- Microsoft faces exposure to fines for breaching legally binding commitments rather than contested infringement findings, and Reuters reports the company is already saying it is fixing the browser issue — an admission-shaped response within hours of the probe opening.
- Browser vendors who were beneficiaries of the 2009 choice screen, Opera chief among them, regain leverage: their original grievance is now the basis of an active enforcement file.
Second-order effects
- With Windows 8's launch approaching, any remedy will land on Microsoft's most important product cycle in years, forcing browser-distribution decisions into the OS rollout itself rather than a patch after the fact.
- Rivals can price and plan around renewed regulatory scrutiny of default placement in Europe, shifting competitive pressure from feature parity to distribution terms.
Third-order effects
- If the Commission enforces settlement commitments this strictly, negotiated remedies across the industry become self-policing obligations with real downside, raising the cost of accepting consent agreements at all.
- The case feeds the broader pattern of platform-default regulation in Europe, where how software is pre-installed and surfaced becomes a standing compliance question rather than a one-time fix.
The trend: European antitrust enforcement is shifting from negotiating behavioral commitments with dominant platforms to actively policing whether they honor them.