COMPETITION : MICROSOFT FACES NEW EU BATTLE.

Microsoft launches its much vaunted new operating system, Vista, on 30 January. This system, however, according to an association of Microsoft's rivals, "carries on the very practices the European Commission found to be illegal almost 3 years ago".

The European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) represents such technology industry giants as Adobe, IBM, Oracle and Sun Microsystems. It has already complained twice to the Commission about Microsoft - first in February 2006. Then, in December 2006, it submitted a further complaint specifically concerning Vista. "With Vista, Microsoft has clearly chosen to ignore the fundamental principles of the Commission's March 2004 decision," ECIS Chairman Simon Awde said.

Awde explained that Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 would also introduce new file formats, which only run with Microsoft Office in an attempt to displace the existing ISO approved, open document file format, which operates on multiple vendor platforms.

On 29 January...