14 DAY TRIAL // Security vendor Kaspersky Lab won’t file a complaint against Microsoft for its antivirus practices in Windows 10, as the software company has made changes to address a number of reported problems, founder and Chief Executive Eugene Kaspersky was quoted as saying by Reuters.
In a blog post published last November, Kaspersky accused Microsoft of abusing its dominant position in the software market to push Windows Defender as the preferred antivirus solution in Windows 10, while also explaining that users end up being exposed to security risks due to some third-party security products being removed when updating to newer OS releases.
Kaspersky called Microsoft’s approach abusive, describing how Windows Defender is automatically enabled on a Windows system when licenses for their third-party antivirus are close to coming to an end.
“It’s a big deal because this is the crucial period during which a significant number of users seek extensions of their security software licenses. And if a user forgets to renew a license, then Microsoft deactivates the existing AV, and turns on Defender,” he said.
Microsoft makes changes to address complaints
It turns out, however, that Microsoft has contacted Kaspersky and the two companies worked together on a number of improvements that are already implemented, though no specifics on this have been provided.
“They are listening to us and they made a few changes. It's an ongoing process. Of course if Microsoft agrees to all our requests we will not file it,” Kaspersky said.
Although Kaspersky now says that no antitrust complaint would be submitted to the European Commission, his initial announcement in late 2016 revealed some antitrust bodies had already been notified.
“We’ve taken the decision to address official bodies in various countries (including the EU and Russia) with a request to oblige Microsoft to cease its violation of anti-competition legislation and to remove the consequences of that violation,” he said at that point.
Microsoft hasn’t yet issued a statement on the possible collaboration with Kaspersky, and the European Commission also refused to confirm whether a complaint was received or not.