Software giant Microsoft will not package its web-browsing Internet Explorer software within the new Windows 7 operating system in Europe, to avoid competition concerns.
“We’re committed to making Windows 7 available in Europe at the same time that it launches in the rest of the world, but we also must comply with European competition law as we launch the product,” Dave Heiner, Microsoft’s deputy general counsel, wrote in a blog post.
“Given the pending legal proceeding, we’ve decided that instead of including Internet Explorer in Windows 7 in Europe, we will offer it separately and on an easy-to-install basis to both computer manufacturers and users. This means that computer manufacturers and users will be free to install Internet Explorer on Windows 7, or not, as they prefer. Of course, they will also be free, as they are today, to install other Web browsers.
The European Union’s competition regulator, the European Commission, said earlier this year that the bundling of Windows and Internet Explorer violates antitrust rules.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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