14 DAY TRIAL // An antitrust case against Microsoft over the discontinued availability of Windows XP was extremely short lived. At the start of June 2009, it appeared that the Redmond-based company’s decision to stop selling XP in favor of Windows Vista had come back with a boomerang effect, as the software giant found itself under investigation in Russia for monopoly practices. However, on September 7th, 2009, Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) announced that it had completely dismissed the case against Microsoft.
Initially, FAS had indicated that it was scrutinizing Microsoft’s practices on the local market in order to attempt to verify whether the company was in violation of Article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition. At the start of this week, Russian antitrust authorities confirmed that the software giant fully complied with antimonopoly legislation, and that the case announced just two months ago was dismissed.
A critical factor contributing to closing down the antitrust case over discontinued XP sales was the fact that Windows Vista’s precursor continues to be available. The Redmond-based company indicated that there are still four channels from which customers can acquire Windows XP. According to FAS, Russian customers can still acquire XP from System Builders, through the Get Genuine Kit, through Downgrade Rights for Windows Vista and pre-installed on netbooks. In the 2008 fiscal year, Microsoft sold over 1.2 million XP copies localized for the local Russian market, FAS noted.
“Also, the corporation submitted a strategy for a phased replacement of various operating systems (Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7). During the case, Microsoft has taken the initiative to organize in Russia the procedure of free exchange of consumer operating system, Windows Vista Home Basic and Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows XP Home. This procedure will be implemented within 3 weeks and will last until the end of 2009. Now a similar procedure is available only to owners of expensive versions of Windows Vista (Business and Premium), preinstalled on a PC,” reads an excerpt from the FAS statement.