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It looks like Microsoft is going to have to fend off a new antitrust complaint in Europe. This time around, Kaspersky Lab is filing a complaint against Microsoft claiming that the company is using its dominant position in the OS market with Windows to push its own anti-virus software over competing products. This wouldn't be the first antitrust issue Microsoft has had to fight due to the applications it packs in with Windows. Back in 2013, the company was fined for only offering Internet Explorer to customers when they first install the OS.
In this case, Kaspersky initially filed a complaint with Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service. Some changes were then made to Windows but Kaspersky thinks more needs to be done, so complaints have also been filed with the European Commission and the German government.
Kaspersky has made its issues with Microsoft public via a blog post, in which Kaspersky co-founder, Eugene Kaspersky, explains how he views the situation:
“We see clearly – and are ready to prove – that Microsoft uses its dominant position in the computer operating system (OS) market to fiercely promote its own – inferior – security software (Windows Defender) at the expense of users’ previously self-chosen security solution. Such promotion is conducted using questionable methods, and we want to bring these methods to the attention of the anti-competition authorities.”
Windows Defender was recently a big part of the Windows 10 Creators Update, with plenty of improvements being made. However, Kaspersky believes that Windows Defender results in an unbalanced playing field for competing anti-virus solutions: “We want Microsoft to stop misleading and misinforming our – and not only our – users. We want to see all security solutions being able to work on the Windows platform on a level playing field.”
The post from Kaspersky ends with a call for other competing anti-virus companies to join it in making a case. Obviously, Microsoft disagrees that Windows 10 goes against competition laws. Here is a statement that I received from a Microsoft spokesperson earlier today:
“Microsoft's primary objective is to keep customers protected and we are confident that the security features of Windows 10 comply with competition laws. We're always interested in feedback from other companies and we engage deeply with antimalware vendors and have taken a number of steps to address their feedback. We reached out directly to Kaspersky a number of months ago offering to meet directly at an executive level to better understand their concerns, but that meeting has not yet taken place.”
KitGuru Says: Usually when an antitrust complaint is made, we don't get to see a lot of the case being made. The fact that Kaspersky has made its grievances public is unexpected to say the least. Still, it seems that taking up Microsoft's offer of an executive meeting would be a more productive first step to reaching common ground than jumping into a legal dispute.
Oh please, this is just as asinine as the Netscape suit. Microsoft provides a free service. Anyone who wants higher quality can go buy an AV product, though, I would not agree Kaspersky’s product is actually any better.
Really? Microsoft have a duty of care to provide an inbuilt anti-virus to it’s users. Kaspersky claiming they have a case here is ridiculous seen as though their free product is about as good as a chocolate fireguard, and the cost to buy it is even more. If Microsoft get penalised for providing a Duty of Care product, I really feel this legal bullshit between vendors to have gone too far. It’s bad already, but this will take it way over the limit.
Microsoft: “We can give everyone the basic protection they need for free! They can always install other products if they want too”
Kaspersky: “Outragous! Tell your users (who 60% have little to no IT knowledge whatsoever) to pick an antivirus best for them at point of install!”
I wouldn’t stress too much, at worse in 3 or 4 years time if it ever made it through the courts, it’ll just be another ‘do you want to install our free antivirus, other antivirus programmes are available’ ticky box exercise when you install Windows 2020 off a usb nvme drive, holodisk or androids penis.
Don’t trust any IT tech that comes out of Russia. an antivirus program used around the world is such an obvious cyberwarfare component I dodn’t even know where to start.
I actually think the KES suite is quite excellent. However I’m not sure they can really call it anti-trust when Microsoft gains tangibly nothing from Windows Defender.
I was under the impression that the majority of people used both Windows defender and a trusted Anti-virus program. For the last 10 years plus I have used WD along with Avast and AntiMalware Bytes (and a touch of common sense when it comes to browsing) and I have been virus/malware free. If anyone is unsure of something just use your search engine of choice and educate yourselves to protect yourselves.