Microsoft may face fresh action: EC

BRUSSELS: The European Commission may bring a new competition case against Microsoft after the Brussels executive received fresh complaints about the software company, a newspaper report said on Tuesday.

Microsoft was ordered last year to change the way it sells its software in Europe and the group has appealed against the decision.

EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in an interview with the International Herald Tribune that she was not going to wait for the outcome of the appeal before considering more action against the U.S. firm.

"We have had informal complaints, and we are using our time now to look at them. We're not going to wait and do nothing," Kroes told the newspaper.

Kroes said the new, informal complaints were similar to the previous ones and focused on the bundling together of existing and future applications.

The newspaper quoted a lawyer as saying the latest complaints centred on Microsoft's Office suite of software applications, including Microsoft Word and Outlook, the e-mail program.

Earlier this month Microsoft filed a new lawsuit against the European Commission, the latest move in its long-running battle against antitrust sanctions imposed by the Commission for abuse of its dominant Windows software.

In March 2004, the Commission found Microsoft abused dominance of the Windows operating system so it could damage rival makers of work-group servers and also of media players.

Microsoft paid a 497 million-euro fine ($621 million) and issued remedies on the two issues, but nearly 1-1/2 years later those sanctions have yet to bite.