Microsoft to defend its IE policies in closed-door antitrust hearing

The antitrust case involving Microsoft's browser-bundling policies is continuing to wind its way through the European courts -- with a closed-door hearing on the matter now slated for early June.

Microsoft officials are slated to present orally between June 3 and June 5 the arguments the company submitted in written form on April 28 to the European Commission (EC) regarding Opera Software's complaint filed in December 2007 over Microsoft's browser-bundling policies.

Here's a quick recap of what's going on.

Opera's antitrust complaint had two parts: Opera charged that Microsoft's policy of bundling IE with Windows hurt consumer choice. It also argued that Microsoft's failure to comply with Web standards with IE resulted in a lack of browser interoperability.

The EC released its preliminary findings, charging Microsoft with abusing its dominant monopoly position, earlier this year. So far, the EC has not said what kinds of financial or other remedial actions it intends to require if it rules in Opera's favor. As part of a previous antitrust case in the EU, via which Microsoft was found guilty of abusing its Windows monopoly, Microsoft was required to offer versions of Windows with Media Player removed and to pay billions of dollars in fines.

Since Opera filed its complaint, Mozilla, Google and members of the European Committee for Interoperable Systems have joined in to help back Opera's case. Microsoft, for its part, added a new "remove Internet Explorer" option to the latest build of Windows 7 -- a move that many industry watchers see as an attempt to blunt the potential impact of any kind of antitrust-related ruling.

Opera execs said last year that Opera is in favor of seeing Microsoft be required to distribute its competitors' browsers via its Automatic Update mechanism and/or to bundle its compeitors' browsers with Windows.

Microsoft currently has close to 68 percent of the worldwide browser marketshare, according to Net Applications. Microsoft's biggest competitor for IE 8 is older versions of IE, rather than Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera or any other third-party browser.

What's your guess as to what's going to happen next in this case?  As I've said before, I think there is a case to be made that Microsoft's browser-bundling policies have hurt competition. But I think it's harder to prove Microsoft's policies have hurt consumers.

Microsoft's failure to keep IE up-to-date and release newer/better/faster versions in a timely manner has resulted in it losing a hefty chunk of marketshare in recent years. Would the market continue to "right" itself even if the courts don't intervene? Perhaps..... I think the EC is going to intervene, however, given its past track record, and the result is not likely to be to Microsoft's liking. What do you think?