Russians accuse Microsoft of choking supply of XP

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 4 Jun 2009 at 18:06

Russia's state anti-monopoly service has launched a probe into Microsoft over cutbacks in supplies of the Windows XP operating system to the country.

The agency believes Microsoft has violated anti-monopoly legislation by cutting delivery of Windows XP to Russia - both separately and pre-installed on PCs - as well as in its pricing policy on the product.

"Analysis of the market for various operating systems shows that the transfer to the new Windows Vista operating system is occurring while demand for the previous operating system, Windows XP, continues," the service claims.

"Demand for separately packaged and pre-installed versions of Windows XP is also confirmed by retailers and the number of orders from the Government."

The agency will consider the case on 24 July.

Microsoft's Moscow office says it has not received an official query from the anti-monopoly service.

"We have always answered anti-monopoly service questions in full and intend to continue this practice in future," claims Microsoft spokeswoman Marina Levina.

The anti-monopoly service is regularly in contact with Russian companies but full-scale investigations are not common.

The suit bears no immediate resemblance to past antitrust claims against Microsoft. The company was the target of a US antitrust lawsuit a decade ago, and was fined 500 million euros by the European Commission in 2004 for anti-competitive behaviour in media player and server software.

The commission later fined Microsoft an additional 900 million euros for non-compliance, but the software maker is appealing against that ruling.