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Kaspersky Files Antitrust Complaints Against Microsoft in Europe

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Kaspersky Files Antitrust Complaints Against Microsoft in Europe

HIGHLIGHTS
Kaspersky Lab has filed antitrust complaints against Microsoft
Kaspersky contends that Microsoft is abusing its market dominance
Claims Microsoft is pushing its users towards its own anti-virus software
Russian security software maker Kaspersky Lab has filed antitrust complaints against Microsoft with the European Commission and the German federal cartel office, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

Kaspersky Lab says that Microsoft is abusing its dominance in the PC operating system market, creating obstacles for independent software security vendors by distributing its own Defender anti-virus software with the ubiquitous Windows operating system.

Microsoft said in a statement on Tuesday that it had not violated any laws.

“Microsoft’s primary objective is to keep customers protected,” the company said in an emailed statement. “We are confident that the security features of Windows 10 comply with competition laws. And we will answer any questions regulators may have.”

Kaspersky filed the complaints after the two companies failed to resolve their differences through private negotiations.
Kaspersky in November threatened to complain to the European Commission but in April said it would hold off because Microsoft had agreed to make some changes.

“These actions by Microsoft lead to a lower level of protection for users, a limitation on their right to choose, and financial losses both for users and security solutions manufacturers,” Kaspersky said on Tuesday.

The European Commission confirmed it had received Kaspersky’s complaint without giving further details.

© Thomson Reuters 2017

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Tags: Kaspersky Lab, Microsoft, antitrust, European Commission, Apps, Internet

[“Source-ndtv”]

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Internet

South Korea Says Investigating Whether Google Broke Antitrust Laws

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

South Korea Says Investigating Whether Google Broke Antitrust Laws

South Korea’s antitrust regulator said on Friday it is looking into whether Google has violated the country’s anticompetition laws, acknowledging formal scrutiny of the global internet search company for the first time.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) disclosed the investigation in a brief statement, without commenting on the nature of the probe nor any potential antitrust violations. A person familiar with the matter told Reuters last month the KFTC inspected Google’s Seoul headquarters in July.

The antitrust body’s statement came after a local media report said the KFTC had decided to clearGoogle of anticompetition charges involving the pre-loading of the company’s apps on smartphones running on the Android operating system.

Google, whose corporate parent is Alphabet Inc, declined to comment.

While it wasn’t clear whether the probe would lead to any formal charges, the investigation opens another regulatory front for Google. The firm was fined $6.8 million in Russia on Thursday and faces multiple European Union antitrust charges.

The KFTC has investigated Google before. In 2013, the regulator cleared Google of wrongdoing following a probe into whether the company hurt competition by forcing smartphone makers using Android to pre-load its search engine on the handsets.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

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Tech Update

EU’s Antitrust Chief Looking Closely at Google’s Android

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

The European Union antitrust chief, who has already charged Google with favoring its own shopping service in internet searches, said on Monday that she was now examining its deals with phone makers and operators.

Attendees sits in front of a Google logo during Google I/O Conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco

The comments by European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager follow a year-long investigation into Android, the world’s most popular operating system for smartphones, triggered by two complaints.

A decision on the shopping service could come this year. Like the Android case, it could lead to a fine of up to $7.4 billion or 10 percent of Google’s 2015 revenue, and force it to change its business practices.

Vestager said big companies should not try to protect themselves by holding back innovation.

“That’s why we’re looking closely at Google’s contracts with phone makers and operators which use the Android operating system,” she said at a conference organized by the Dutch competition authority.

“Our concern is that, by requiring phone makers and operators to pre-load a set of Google apps, rather than letting them decide for themselves which apps to load, Google might have cut off one of the main ways that new apps can reach customers.”

The Commission said last year that it was also investigating whether Google had prevented smartphone and tablet manufacturers from developing and marketing modified and potentially competing versions of Android.

Another area of concern was whether Google had illegally hindered the development and market access of rival applications and services by bundling some of its applications and services distributed on Android devices with other Google products.

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Internet

Google Split Not Yet Ruled Out, Says EU Antitrust Chief Margrethe Vestager: Report

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Google Split Not Yet Ruled Out, Says EU Antitrust Chief Margrethe Vestager: Report

HIGHLIGHTS

  • EU holds “grave suspicions” about the dominance of Internet giant Google
  • European Commission had slapped a record EUR 2.4 billion fine on Google
  • It had told the firm to stop favouring its shopping service

The European Union holds “grave suspicions” about the dominance of Internet giant Google and has not ruled out breaking it up, according to a warning by the EU’s antitrust chief, Britain’s Telegraph reported on Sunday.

European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager reckons the threat to split Google into smaller companies must be kept open, the newspaper said.

Google currently faces new EU rules on its commercial practices with smaller businesses that use its services.

Late last year, Vestager said more cases against Google were likely in the future, after the European Commission slapped a record EUR 2.4 billion ($2.97 billion or roughly Rs. 19,300 crores) fine on the world’s most popular Internet search engine and told the firm to stop favouring its shopping service.

The European Commission is in the process of drafting a new regulation aimed at regulating e-commerce sites, app stores and search engines to be more transparent in how they rank search results and why they delist some services.

The antitrust chief’s office was not immediately available for comment on the Telegraph report.

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

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