The European Commission intensified Microsoft's legal headaches Thursday, charging that the company used its clout in personal computer software to help it expand into the exploding server software market. The new antitrust case comes as Microsoft appeals a U.S. judge's order in June that would break it into smaller companies and temporarily impose curbs on its conduct. The EC case is based on a 1998 complaint by Sun Microsystems. It alleged that Microsoft refused to share technical information that would enable Sun's servers to work with Microsoft's dominant Windows operating systems for PCs.
Servers are big computers that run millions of Web sites and thousands of corporations.
Microsoft, the commission says, wanted to favor its own server software and drive out competitors. That would widen its share of a market that's growing much faster than PCs. The US government's case is rooted in charges that Microsoft stifled competition for PC operating systems, a relatively stagnant market. Some of the conduct restrictions imposed by Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson do attempt to address future battlegrounds. For example, he would force Microsoft to give rivals access to Windows' technical interfaces.