Last month, Opera Software filed a complaint with the European Union, stating that Microsoft’s bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows was anti-competitive. Today, ZDNet reports that the European Commission (part of the EU) will investigate the matter, as well as claims that Microsoft intentionally fails to follow Web standards.
The EC issued the following statement:
"This initiation of proceedings does not imply that the Commission has proof of an infringement. It only signifies that the Commission will further investigate the case as a matter of priority."
As I argued in previous coverage, at this point Opera’s claims are ridiculous. This morning, I setup a brand new computer, and one of the first things I did was go to Mozilla.com to download and install Firefox. This took about 2 minutes, and Internet Explorer did nothing to prevent me from doing so. I’m not alone here – Firefox now claims 15-25% market share in some parts of the world.