Opera Software files complaint over Microsoft browser

Opera Software has filed a legal complaint to the European Commission against Microsoft over the companies web browser and how it is packaged with the operating system. As you may or may not have noticed, the Internet Explorer browser that comes with the Windows operating system has become part of the OS, and can’t really be removed or uninstalled. Because of this Opera Software is complaining that the tie Microsoft has between the OS and its IE browser is illegal since it does not give competing browsers a chance on the highly dominate Windows OS. Opera is also saying that Microsoft is hindering interoperability by not following the commonly accepted web standards.

Opera is asking that Microsoft be forced to “unbundle” their web browser and operating system allowing other browsers, such as Opera’s, to be able to compete more fairly. They are also asking that Microsoft adhere to common Web standards so that developers creating hosted applications and web sites do not allow or need specific code written for viewing on Internet Explorer compared to other browsers.




This complaint is the first against Microsoft since the EU upheld the ruling in September that Microsoft had breached EU monopoly laws and should give competing products an fair chance on the Windows operating system.