Microsoft interoperability move doesn’t answer antitrust concerns
"The European Commission takes note of (the) announcement by Microsoft of its intention to commit to a number of principles in order to promote interoperability with some of its high market share software products," the European Commission said.
"This announcement does not relate to the question of whether or not Microsoft has been complying with EU antitrust rules in this area in the past," it added in a statement.
Earlier on Thursday, Microsoft said it was making "broad-reaching changes" to its technology and business practices to enhance the ease with which its software interacts with partners, customers, and competitors.
The software giant said its new principles include ensuring open connections, promoting data portability, increasing support for open connections, and fostering closer ties with the "open-source community."
The European Commission has long accused Microsoft of abusing its dominant market power by making software that is incompatible with products made by its rivals.
In September, Microsoft lost an appeal before Europe's second-highest court against a fine of nearly 500 million euros that EU regulators slapped on the company in 2004 for abusing its dominant market power.
Since its court victory, the European Commission has launched a new investigation targetting the interoperability of a broad range of software, including Microsoft's popular Office package, with rival products.
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