Google Joins Web Browser Case Against Microsoft
Accusing Microsoft of unfairly sidelining competitors, Google said on Tuesday that it would apply to join a European Union antitrust case against Microsoft over the company’s Web browser.
The case, initiated by the E.U. in January, accused Microsoft of illegally tying Internet Explorer to Windows to stifle competition in the browser market, breathing new life into issues that were at the core of the landmark Department of Justice antitrust suit against Microsoft a decade ago. The E.U. acted after it received a complaint from Opera, an Oslo-based maker of a competing browser. Mozilla, which makes the Firefox browser, applied to join the case earlier this month.
Google, which last year rolled out Chrome, a competing browser, said it was also applying to become a “third party” in the European proceeding.
“Google believes that the browser market is still largely uncompetitive, which holds back innovation for users,” Sundar Pichai, a vice president for product management, wrote in a Google blog. “This is because Internet Explorer is tied to Microsoft’s dominant computer operating system, giving it an unfair advantage over other browsers.”
Google declined to make anyone available to discuss its announcement. By becoming a party to the case, it would participate in the proceedings and gain access to the confidential “statement of objections” that European regulators sent to Microsoft last month. Google could also argue for remedies it prefers.
Microsoft declined to comment on Google’s announcement. In January it said that it was still studying the European complaint. Microsoft later revealed that the European Commission was threatening a “significant fine” against Microsoft. The company also said regulators might force it to include rival browsers on computers that sold with the Windows operating system.
Antitrust experts said that it was not surprising for a competitor like Google to join the case, but they questioned the timing of the European action, which came as rival browsers were steadily gaining market share.
Microsoft’s share of the browser market had decreased to 68 percent in January, from about 80 percent two years ago, according to Net Applications, a research firm. Firefox had about 21.5 percent of the market, while Safari, made by Apple, 8.3 percent, and Google’s Chrome, 1 percent.
“This new complaint is not necessary and actually seems like it is instigated to protect particular competitors rather than the competitive process,” said Samuel R. Miller, a partner at Sidley Austin in San Francisco who acted as special trial counsel for the Justice Department’s first antitrust case against Microsoft. “The browser has changed fundamentally from a decade ago.”
This is not the first time that Google and Microsoft have been on opposite sides of antitrust claims. In 2006, Google complained to the Justice Department and to European regulators that Microsoft was using Internet Explorer to unfairly drive users to its search service, at the expense of Google’s. The Justice Department determined that the design of Microsoft’s browser did not pose a threat to competition.
Google also lobbied against Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Yahoo, which fell apart after Yahoo repeatedly rejected Microsoft’s offers in 2008.
Microsoft, for its part, lobbied against Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick and a proposed advertising pact between Google and Yahoo, which Google abandoned after the Justice Department said it planned to file suit to block it. -NyTimes
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yay! very brave
yay!, M is in hot water!!