Will Google save Microsoft from EU charges?

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 11 May 2009 at 11:14

Reports suggest that Microsoft is banking on Google's unpopularity with regulators to help it escape EU antitrust wrangles.

Microsoft will face EU regulators on 3 June in an attempt to fend off charges that bundling Internet Explorer with Windows harms competition.

According to a report in the New York Times, Microsoft will argue that being forced to bundle other browsers with Windows would only strengthen Google's dominance in the global search-advertising market.

And it's not only the presence of Chrome on Windows machines that Microsoft's worried about. The company will also highlight Mozilla's deal with Google, which sees Firefox users punted to a default start page with a Google search box.

In 2007, this deal accounted for 88% of Mozilla's revenues, prompting an investigation from the US Internal Revenue Service.

Microsoft has refused to divulge details of its defence, and would not comment on the New York Times story. Google would only offer a generic statement claiming, "we believe more competition will mean greater innovation on the web and a better user experience for people everywhere".

The defence is clearly intended to cash-in on Google's recent clashes with regulators. Only last week the US Federal Trade Commission launched an inquiry into whether the ties between the boards of Apple and Google violate antitrust laws.