Rivals such as Google and Adobe are wary of the new version of Windows, set for release early next year.
They could formally ask the Commission to act and it could order changes in Vista, following on from its landmark 2004 antitrust decision that found Microsoft muscled out other companies.
But if the Court of First Instance (CFI) were to annul that decision, as Microsoft has asked, it would pull the legal rug out from under the Commission.
The problem is that the ruling by the EU's second-highest court may not arrive until after Vista is on the market next year.
The Commission fined Microsoft nearly half a billion euros in its 2004 decision and ordered sanctions, including the sale of a modified version of Windows. Microsoft appealed to the CFI, which heard arguments last month.
For the time being Microsoft has not slowed down from preparing Vista for market and the Commission is not backing off from following up on its 2004 ruling.
Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes told Microsoft in a letter in March that its plans for Vista could "deny PC manufacturers and consumers a real choice among competing software products and stifle innovation", the Commission said.
Microsoft argues it has scrupulously obeyed the law all along and said its decisions to compete with Adobe were "guided by a principled commitment to preserve healthy competition".
Unfinished business
But the Commission has unfinished business trying to enforce its earlier sanctions against Microsoft, and is contemplating fines of up to €2m (£1.4m) a day.
"The European Commission's provisional view is that Microsoft is still not compliant with the requirements of the March 2004 decision," spokesman Jonathan Todd said.
The Commission would have to send a direct order to force Microsoft to change Vista if it found such a step were justified. The pending court case muddies the waters.
The court could fully uphold the Commission's 2004 ruling or entirely throw it out. The court could also annul parts of the decision and set out a legal checklist for future Commission action, as it has in the past.
The Commission has no way of knowing whether there will be such a checklist or its contents, making action difficult.
Courts or competition authorities in the United States, Asia and Europe with jurisdiction over 31 countries have found the software giant illegally throws its weight around to shake off competitors. Adobe and Google wonder whether they are the next targets of Microsoft.
Adobe gives away reader software for its .pdf format but makes its money by selling programs to scan or print documents into the popular non-changeable format.
Vista will include Microsoft's XPS software, which does much the same thing.
Adobe's files are "cross-platform," which means they can be read by Microsoft, Linux, Macintosh and other operating systems. Microsoft says XPS "can be licensed royalty-free" and "implemented on other platforms and devices". In other words it is not cross-platform by default but Microsoft has no objection if others adopt it.
Then there is Internet search engine firm Google. The new version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer has a built-in window to take computer buyers to a search engine.
Microsoft says it is up to computer makers, which distribute nine out of every 10 copies of Windows sold, to decide whether that window should take users to Microsoft's MSN search engine or some other.
Computers makers will be able to sell the space, Microsoft says. Google did not return calls and email seeking comment.
Talkback
"its plans for Vista could "deny PC manufacturers and consumers a real choice among competing software products and stifle innovation"
ahahahha NO, i wish these idiot judges and EU commissioners would get a clue and stop attacking something that is fine as it is!
Adding anything to MS windows has never stopped me nor will it ever stop me installing something else that will do the job as well if not better than what MS have already provided for me.
Why cant they get that through their thick heads?
And when those competing companies have their revenue stream cut off by the Microsoft give-away product? They go bust and who do you buy those better products from then?
Adobe makes its pdf money from selling the writers/editors/print programs - MS gives these away and offers their program for third party developers (the rights to anything worthwhile naturally become MS owned) including the bits that provide Adobe with their income. This gives MS a leverage into a market by dint of their dominance in the desktop/os market - that is unfair action by a monopoly company and should, rightly, be questioned by any regulatory body that oversees trade and competition.
That is the job that the EC Trade commissioners were given, they are not "meddling" they are responding to legitimate concerns and complaints from companies that fear their market is being invaded by a monopolistic entity that can use the dominance of one of its products to destroy their quite different product market. Should their fears be realised then there is *no* competition left in those markets, they will go the way of Netscape and the many other companies who have experienced the thrill of having MS enter their playing ground.
How come the EU is struggling with Vista?
It seems quite clear that Vista and the the next iteration of Office are deliberately exploiting MS dominance to stiffle competition and continue with, even extend, MS predatory tactics.
If the EU can't deal with this, what use is it to us. It stands to reason that the US won't try too hard!
what I would like to know is why all of us need to be coddled like babies. I am a grown
man and I can choose what is on my computer myself. All the EU is accomplishing
is making the choice to use microsoft products harder because using competing products is already simple. They used the moron in a hurry test to figure out if people would confuse Apple records or Apple computers and found that indeed even
George Bush in a hurry knew the difference.
Now applying that same logic to Windows and
all of the supposed competition stifling software that comes with it how long do you think it takes the average computer buyer to download Winamp or Yahoo messenger. How
much trouble is it to search for google? Does anybody really know anybody else with a computer that only uses exactly what windows gives you and nothing more.
You do not have to go far to see what Microsoft does when it owns a market. As soon as Netscape went development of IE basically stopped. Where was the innovation? No innovation costs money and if people do not have a choice why spend money developing a product. It was only after firefox appeared that Microsoft decided that IE needed some work. What part of this is not clear? The EU is right to be concerned.