Polish watchdog asks the EU to investagate Microsoft for anti-trust

A watchdog organization in Poland has reportedly asked the EU's European Commission to investigate Microsoft over its dealings with laptop makers in the region, Reuters and the Warsaw Business Journal report. The organization had been conducting an investigation over whether Microsoft was colluding with laptop makers to restrict the availability of Linux as an operating system choice. The organization, dubbed the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (with a Polish acronym of UOKiK), has forwarded a report to the EC on its investigation, which it began in December 1997.

Laptops in the region have Windows pre-installed. The report questions whether users should be given the choice of which operating system they want. The UOKiK posted a statement on its Web site saying the territory involved covers so wide an area that the EC should be involved.

Fining Microsoft for anti-competitive practices seems to have become an international obsession. (Not that Microsoft hasn't, in many ways, brought this on itself.)

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• Poland asks EC to investigate Microsoft