EU Commission presents a case against IBM

EU Commission presents a case against IBM

The EU Commission has "thoroughly examined" a case against IBM for alleged infringement of the competition rules set. This was announced by the EU executive on Tuesday. It was about the alleged connection of hardware and operating system. The three complaints from competitors, including the software company T3 Turbo Technologies and Hercules, had been withdrawn. "We have completed this part of the investigation," said EU Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia.

Due to a further allegation that IBM had urged provider of maintenance services from the mainframe market, IBM made an offer by the EU Commission. The company wanted to guarantee for five years, that spare parts and technical information are open to "reasonable conditions" to all competitors who offer maintenance services. Now asks the EU Commission, the competition for positions.

Brussels suspected IBM in mainframe computers and high-performance hardware to its operating system and linked in this way, competitors have to be forced out. Therefore, the Competition Authority had opened an antitrust investigation in July 2010 against IBM, one of the world's largest software company.

The Commission also examined whether the isolated group maintenance services and restricted access to its spare parts or have them delivered until late.

This IBM threatened a fine of up to 10 percent of its annual turnover - 2010 was the $ 99.9 billion. Microsoft had to pay fines in a similar case and meet EU requirements, because it had linked its Internet Explorer browser to its operating system.

"I welcome the commitment by IBM to address our concerns about fair competition in the market for large computers," said Almunia. Agreements are prohibited in the EU to the detriment of competitors or consumers.