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Japan probes Microsoft
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January 13, 1998: 8:29 a.m. ET
Japanese competition authorities inspect Microsoft's Tokyo subsidiary
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Officials from the Japanese Fair Trade Commission (FTJC) inspected the offices of Microsoft Inc.'s Tokyo subsidiary Tuesday, opening another front on the software giant's growing war over alleged antitrust abuses.
The agency officials reviewed the company's business documents and Microsoft said it is cooperating fully with the regulators.
The Japanese regulators, like their U.S. Justice Department counterparts, are reviewing the integration of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system and its Internet Explorer browser.
The FTJC is also focusing on Microsoft's plan to offer a word processor and spreadsheet package to makers of personal computers in Japan.
Microsoft defended its plan, saying that a competing package is already being offered by Just System, a Japanese software firm.
By offering this system, said Microsoft's Associate General Counsel International Brad Smith, "we have expanded the choices available to Japanese consumers, which is a goal that Japanese competition law seeks to encourage."
Microsoft (MSFT) finds itself in a flurry of legal activity over such combination of software offerings.
On Tuesday Microsoft will enter a U.S. district court to fight it out with a longtime foe, the U.S. Justice Department.
At issue on Tuesday will be whether or not the company is in contempt of a December 11 order from Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson. In the order, Jackson said that Microsoft must offer a version of Windows 95 that does not contain the Internet Explorer browser.
Justice has charged that by bundling the browser with the widely-used operating system, Microsoft is using its power in one area to force its way into another.
For its part, Microsoft said that it can't take out the Internet Explorer browser without impairing the overall Windows 95 operating system. It offered computer makers a two-year old version which did not contain the browser but the Justice Department scoffed at Microsoft's actions.
"The response by Microsoft is essentially a meaningless response," said Assistant Attorney General Joe Klein.
Judge Jackson told both sides at a meeting last month that he had conducted his own demonstration by deleting the browser. He said that Windows 95 still worked properly after that. Microsoft said the issue was more complicated than Jackson's demonstration indicated.
The Justice Department is basing many of its criticisms of Microsoft on the 1995 consent decree. In that decree, Microsoft said it would make changes so that it would not use its strong market share to create software monopolies.
-- from staff and wire reports
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