Microsoft, the technology giant that has shrugged off poking and probing by critics and regulators in the United States, now faces a similar examination in Europe.
Unnamed European Union sources told Reuters, Agence France-Presse, and the Belgian newspaper Het Belang Van Limbourg that a complaint from a competitor - the company, too, went unnamed - had prompted a review of the US company's activities. The investigation concerns discounts granted by Microsoft to certain companies that might affect competitors, and some unspecified elements of its licensing practices and Internet stratey, the sources said.
"Broadly speaking, there are half a dozen Microsoft issues that we are following. There are complaints. One of them is a complaint about licensing practices," the Agence France-Presse source said.
Microsoft, which last underwent trade-practice scrutiny in Europe three years ago, had no immediate comment on the reports.
