Opera tells EU that Microsoft's IE hurts the Web

Computerworld - Norwegian browser maker Opera Software ASA took a page from an American playbook yesterday as it complained to European Union antitrust regulators that Microsoft Corp. stifles competition.

In a complaint, Opera claimed Microsoft continues to abuse its dominant position on the desktop by tying its Internet Explorer (IE) browser to Windows, and hinders interoperability by not following accepted Web standards. It asked the EU's Competition Commission to force Microsoft into separating IE from Windows, and to demand that IE support several standards.

In a statement, the commission said Opera should "obligate Microsoft to unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows and/or carry alternative browsers preinstalled on the desktop.

"Second, it asks the European Commission to require Microsoft to follow fundamental and open Web standards accepted by the Web-authoring communities," Opera said. "Microsoft's unilateral control over standards in some markets creates a de facto standard that is more costly to support, harder to maintain and technologically inferior, and that can even expose users to security risks."

Several U.S. states argued along similar lines back in October when they asked that judicial oversight of Microsoft's behavior be extended until 2012. Then, six states -- California, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and Massachusetts -- as well as the District of Columbia told U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly that Microsoft's dominance meant it could use IE to stop or hinder Web-based threats to Windows. According to the latest figures, IE owned just over 77% of the global browser market in November.

"Many of the 'new' or 'emerging' technologies cited by Microsoft's experts [as competitors] are dependent on a 'standards-based' browser to access computing functionality delivered by servers. For the vast majority of PCs, that browser is IE," the California-led group of states said in October. "The threat that these technologies pose to Microsoft's Windows monopoly through their ability to erode the applications barrier to entry depends, in large part, on Microsoft's willingness to maintain IE as a standards-compliant browser and to continue supporting cross-platform implementations."

Opera didn't use that specific argument in its complaint, but it hinted that IE's lack of support for Web standards jeopardized its own browser. "Instead of innovating, Microsoft has locked consumers to its own browser," the company said in its statement.

Opera's chief technology officer, Hakon Wium Lie, however, was more specific in an open letter he posted to his blog Thursday. "We believe that Microsoft has harmed Web standards by refusing to support them," Lie said. "Microsoft often participates in creating Web standards, promoting them and even promising to implement them. Despite their talent, however, they refuse to support Web standards correctly. For example, Internet Explorer is the only modern Web browser that does not support Acid2. Because Internet Explorer doesn't implement open and fully developed Web standards, the work is hard and frustrating. Web designers are forced to spend time working around IE bugs rather than doing what inspires them."