Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Spanish competition regulator investigates Microsoft

A software reseller has alleged that Microsoft unjustifiably prevents resale of licenses to its applications

Spain's National Competition Commission is investigating whether Microsoft has unjustifiably prevented or limited resale of software licenses, in breach of Spanish and European Union competition laws, the Commission announced Tuesday.

The investigation of Microsoft Iberia and Microsoft Ireland Operations began on Sept. 15, according to an online database of Commission activities.

The Commission has already found information suggesting that Microsoft breached articles 1 and 2 of the Spanish Competition Act, and articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the E.U., the Commission said. The investigation could go on for up to 18 months, it said.

The investigation was triggered by a complaint filed on Jan. 3 by Spanish company Elegant Business, operator of a website specializing in reselling software licenses, www.softbrocker.com.

On that site, Elegant Business notes that it has the right to resell software licenses under the E.U.'s 2001 directive on the harmonization of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society.

Article 28 of that directive limits copyright holders' ability to control sales of their works within the E.U. to the first sale only.

Microsoft maintains that software licenses are different however: In a January 2010 news release aimed at the Spanish market, it said that the transfer of software licenses is subject to the consent of the copyright holder, and that transfers can only legally be made in very specific cases, such as when two companies merge or when a company splits up.

However, the license terms for Microsoft Office 2010 published on Microsoft's website do not forbid transfer of the license, and the restrictions imposed on such transfers appear primarily to prevent the first party from retaining use of the application when transferring title to a third party.

If found guilty of breaking Spanish competition laws, Microsoft faces a fine of up to 10 percent of the offending business unit's revenue in the preceding year. In practice, the fine would be calculated as a percentage of the sales volume affected by the violation, a Commission spokesman said.

Microsoft didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Peter Sayer covers open source software, European intellectual property legislation and general technology breaking news for IDG News Service. Send comments and news tips to Peter at peter_sayer@idg.com.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: 4D, CA Technologies, IDG, Microsoft, OFT, SAS
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: Microsoft, software, legal, antitrust
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • IDC Whitepaper: Generating Proven Business Value with EMC Next-Generation Backup and Recovery
    IDC interviewd ten companies that have deployed EMC backup and recovery solutions, including EMC Data Domain and EMC Avamar. Some of the customers also had EMC NetWorker. The purpose was to identify and quantify the resulting business value of each project, in order to calculate a cumulative return on investment. Read on.
    Learn more »
  • Managing Trust - Data protection and compliance for financial services
    If it’s becoming something of a cliché that the financial services industry is one of the world’s most heavily regulated, that’s largely because it’s true. Data retention and archiving, authentication and authorisation, data loss prevention and privacy regulations compete with demands for transparency and accountability, while market imperatives calling for multiple service channels delivered over a broad spread of technologies add to the pressure. Read on.
    Learn more »
  • Lost USB keys have 66% chance of malware
    Sophos studied 50 USB keys bought at RailCorp's 2011 Lost Property auction in Sydney. The study revealed that two-thirds were infected by malware, and quickly uncovered information about many of the former owners of the devices, their family, friends and colleagues. Disturbingly, none of the owners had used any sort of encryption to secure their files against unauthorised snoopers.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments