A New Delhi based law firm Singhania & Partners has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft India in Competition Appellate Tribunal (COMPAT) for reportedly abusing its dominant position in the desktop software market for its Windows and Office products.
Further, the firm also claimed that Microsoft is forcing its dealers to sell more expensive Volume Licence costing Rs 9,300 ($202) for larger customers rather than OEM license of Windows Vista, which is available at Rs 6,350 ($138), although both products are quite identical in features. In case the customer wanted to opt for an OEM license, they would have to buy new computers along with it.
That being said, this is the second time Singania & Partners has filed such a lawsuit. It had filed a similar appeal earlier this year, which was rejected by Competition Commission of India (CCI) due to lack of evidence. CCI had later said that it couldn’t find any evidence against the Redmond software giant which indicated that it was driving away its competitors because of its dominant position in the market (see chart).
In its re-appeal, the law firm however has said that they had filed the case due to license overpricing and bundling of software, not because Microsoft was driving away its competitors from the market.
While I am no expert in law, the claims seem quite genuine. However I am not quite sure if this appeal will stand in the court, since Microsoft would have woven special partnerships with manufacturers to preload Windows OS into their computers. They simply can’t offer these special edition operating systems to normal business customers.
[Source: TimesOfIndia.com | Image: Marc_Smith]
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