BRUSSELS -- The European Commission said on Thursday it had further investigations pending involving Microsoft Corp., in addition to the one announced on Wednesday regarding the firm's new Windows 2000 operating system.
"We have other Microsoft-related cases pending which I cannot comment on in detail," spokesman Michael Tscherny told reporters.
"We are investigating other cases, partly based on complaints, not concerning Windows 2000. I can't give you specifics on where we are," he added.
European Union antitrust chief Mario Monti told a news conference on Wednesday the EU's Executive Commission had sent Microsoft a formal request for information following allegations that its new Windows 2000 software breaks EU antitrust rules.
End users, small computer businesses, and competitors of Microsoft say the design of Windows 2000 allows it to extend its dominance in personal computer operating systems to server operating systems and ultimately electronic commerce, Monti said.
"Microsoft's competitors, which do not have access to the interfaces, would therefore ... be put at a significant competitive disadvantage," he said.
The Commission's latest probes add to the legal problems Microsoft faces in the United States, where a federal judge ruled last November that the world's largest software company wields monopoly power in computer operating systems.
But the Commission, the EU's antitrust watchdog, stressed the cases were separate.
"The issue of the U.S. proceedings and the allegations we have been confronted with are different," the commission said in a note explaining Wednesday's announcement.
Microsoft's director for European law and competition affairs John Frank was unable to confirm the nature of the new cases Tscherny was referring to.
"We routinely get requests for information, it's part of the ongoing process," Frank told Reuters. "Whether a file is open or not, I couldn't confirm, but it wouldn't surprise me at all."
"As a company we get a great deal of attention from regulators," he said, adding that Microsoft was aware of complaints to the Commission from Sun Microsystems.
The Commission has tussled several times with Microsoft. In 1998, it forced the company to alter contracts with European Internet service providers and it recently reopened an investigation into Microsoft's pricing policy in France.
This followed an EU court ruling that the Commission was wrong to have rejected a complaint from French software wholesaler Micro Leader Business which was trying to import cheaper products from Canada.
If the allegations announced on Wednesday against Microsoft are proven, the Commission could force the U.S. software giant to make changes to Windows 2000.
Under EU rules, if the company refused to come into line, it could face fines of up to 10 percent of its worldwide revenues, although such a large fine has never been levied.
