Chinese antitrust regulator targets Microsoft software bundling

Microsoft’s internet browser and media player are being targeted in a Chinese antitrust probe, raising the prospect of China revisiting the software bundling issue at the heart of past antitrust complaints against the firm in the West.

The State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) suspects Microsoft of not being fully transparent with information about its Windows and Office sales, but the company has expressed willingness to cooperate with ongoing investigations, Zhang Mao, the head of the antitrust regulator, said at a briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.

As Windows became the world’s dominant operating system in the 1990s and 2000s, the issue of how Microsoft bundled its web browser and media player became the focus of respective antitrust cases brought by US and European authorities.

Microsoft settled in 2001 with the United States Department of Justice a long-running case centring on whether it could bundle its flagship Internet Explorer browser with Windows.

In 2004, the European Union ordered Microsoft to pay a ¤497 million euro fine and produce a version of Windows without the Windows Media Player bundled. The fine was later increased to nearly ¤1.4 billion.

China’s focus on two products previously litigated elsewhere appears to form the basis of its investigation, but the probe could extend beyond the media player and browser bundling issue, said You Youting, a partner at Shanghai Debund Law Offices.