(Note: The original article is entitled “EU: Internet Explorer harms competition” from CNN.com)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — The European Commission accused Microsoft Corp. Friday of violating competition law by including its Internet Explorer Web browser in Windows operating systems.
The executive arm of the European Union said it had reached the preliminary view that the company had prevented rival browsers from competing and had infringed EU rules on abuse of dominant position.
It said Microsoft had eight weeks to reply to the “statement of objections” it sent to the company, in which it threatened to impose a fine on the U.S. software giant if its preliminary findings were confirmed.
“In the statement of objection, the Commission sets out evidence and outlines its preliminary conclusion that Microsoft’s tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system harms competition between web browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice,” the EU executive said in a statement.
