EU says Microsoft pledged to meet antitrust requests on browsers
(Reuters) - Software giant Microsoft is ready to introduce measures that would address the European Union's antitrust concerns about users' ability to chose between different browsers, European Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said on Saturday.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second round of the same fight: after Microsoft's 2009 proposals on Internet Explorer bundling produced the browser-choice screen shipped with Windows 7 in Europe, the Commission reopened the case in July 2012, probing whether users could still choose between browsers on newer Windows versions (the July antitrust probe) while separately investigating Windows 8 (that inquiry began a day later).
Commissioner Joaquin Almunia's Saturday statement signals de-escalation rather than escalation — Microsoft has pledged remedial measures instead of facing formal charges — but the episode lands mid-launch cycle, with Windows Server 2012 shipping September 4 and Lumia hardware with Nokia being readied against smartphone market leaders.
First-order effects
- Microsoft now owes the EU concrete implementation of browser-choice measures across current Windows releases, converting an open probe into a compliance obligation monitored by Almunia's directorate.
- The pledge defers any formal sanction decision, keeping Microsoft's European Windows launch schedule free of an active enforcement penalty.
Second-order effects
- Alternative browser vendors regain the distribution footing the original 2009 settlement was designed to protect, since restored choice mechanisms lower the default advantage Internet Explorer holds at the access layer.
- The remedy Microsoft offers here becomes the reference point for how the separate Windows 8 investigation proceeds — regulators will judge the new OS against whatever fix is accepted now.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern from 2009 holds, default-placement practices by dominant desktop platforms become a recurring regulatory checkpoint in Europe rather than a one-time settlement, raising the cost of treating the browser screen as settled forever.
- Pledge-based enforcement carries real execution risk — commitments are only as strong as their delivery — so the outcome will test whether negotiated remedies are durable enough to substitute for fines and structural conditions.
The trend: European antitrust enforcement is shifting toward repeated, commitment-monitored oversight of default software placement on dominant platforms, with each Windows generation reopening the browser-choice question.