Spain's National Competition Commission has opened an anti-trust investigation into Microsoft’s Spanish and Irish subsidiaries for allegedly blocking the sale of PC software licenses by third parties, the agency said Tuesday.
The commission said that the investigation was launched after collecting evidence that could indicate violations by the computing giant. The investigation will need to conclude in 18 months, the commission added.
“We have received the formal notice on the CNC investigation, and will work closely with the authorities on the issues in hand,” a Microsoft spokesman said.
Microsoft is no stranger to across-the-pond anticompetitive accusations and punishments. In 2004 the European Competition Commission ordered Redmond to pay $613 million, then the heaviest fine ever levied by the body, for failing to provide rivals with necessary information to compete fairly and for bundling Windows Media Player with Windows and thereby squashing competition for other media players. In 2008, the commission fined Microsoft an additional $1.35 billion for failure to comply with the first ruling.
In February 2010 Microsoft rolled out their commission-stipulated “browser ballot” in Windows which allows the user to choose their default internet browser, rather than default to Internet Explorer.
Earlier this year, Microsoft brought an antitrust suit against Google for anticompetitive practices in the search market.
