The European Commission has already begun an investigation into
Microsoft over complaints about the interoperability of the
company's technology. Interoperable technology conforms to public
technical standards and allows other technologies to work easily
with it.
The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency
(Becta) has now sent its complaints dossier, previously filed with
the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), to the Commission, it said.
"At a recent meeting with the Commission Becta set out its key
areas of concern and their impact on the UK education system," said
the organisation in a statement. "Becta believes that impediments
to interoperability limit choice. In the context of the education
system this can result in higher prices and a range of other
unsatisfactory effects which have a negative impact on wider policy
initiatives."
Its complaint to the OFT said that Microsoft undertakes
anti-competitive licensing practices in its schools software and
that its Office 2007 product contains "impediments to effective
interoperability".
With the OFT's permission, Becta has sent its
interoperability-related complaint and its supporting evidence to
the Commission.
"It is not just the interests of competitors and the wider
marketplace that are damaged when barriers to effective
interoperability are created," said Stephen Lucey, executive
director of strategic technologies for Becta. "Such barriers can
also damage the interests of education and training organisations,
learners, teachers and parents."
The Commission's ongoing investigation was announced in January
of this year following complaints about interoperability from the
European Committee for Interoperable Systems, an
interoperability-lobbying trade body which represent technology
companies.
"In the complaint by ECIS, Microsoft is alleged to have
illegally refused to disclose interoperability information across a
broad range of products, including information related to its
Office suite, a number of its server products, and also in relation
to the so-called .NET Framework," said a Commission statement
announcing the probe in January. "The Commission's examination will
therefore focus on all these areas, including the question whether
Microsoft's new file format Office Open XML, as implemented in
Office, is sufficiently interoperable with competitors'
products."
Becta argues in its complaint that Microsoft supports its own
technical protocols far better than it does industry standard ones
when it comes to its Office products.
"This decision had the effect of requiring users to download and
install a range of converters to enable them to interoperate with
those competitor products," said a Becta statement. "Becta argued
that such circumstances would constitute a barrier to the uptake
and use of competitor products and limit competition and choice for
educational users."
The OFT is still considering the complaints about Microsoft's
School Agreement licensing model, Becta said.
Microsoft was the subject a €497 million Commission fine over
interoperability in 2004, a fine which the EU's Court of First
Instance backed in a decision in September of last year.
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