The European Commission has accused Microsoft of “harming competition by bundling its Internet Explorer browser with its Windows operating system”. The commission stated that “it had reached the preliminary view that the US software giant had undermined consumer choice and infringed EU rules”. Microsoft and the European Union have been at loggerheads over this issue for ages and this is not the first time that Microsoft have been fined by the EU (Last year, the EU fined Microsoft $1.4bn; £680.9m).

In its statement  the Commission also said: “Microsoft’s tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system harms competition between web browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice.”

Microsoft’s reply was that it was “studying the commission’s preliminary finding” and “did not rule out requesting a formal hearing”.

If you haven’t gotten the gist of what I’m talking about, let’s break it down. The main dispute surrounds the fact that Microsoft controls the majority of the web-browsing market through its Explorer browser. The previous fine which was imposed by the EU was purely for “defying sanctions imposed on it for anti-competitive behaviour”.

The battle continues.

I, for one, have been using Firefox for many years now and would never look back to Explorer. It’s flawed in many ways, and it irritates me to use it. But perhaps the EU have a point – competitors browsers aren’t exactly accessable knowledge unless you know where to look.

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