14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft’s problems in Russia continue, as the Federal Antimonopoly Service has decided to start an investigation against the Redmond-based software giant amid claims of unfair practices regarding antivirus software in Windows 10.
Russian-based security company Kaspersky has complained that Microsoft is abusing its dominant position by forcing users to stick with Windows Defender in Windows 10, while also implementing changes that impact the adoption of third-party software.
Founder Eugene Kaspersky explains that Microsoft has reduced the period of time the company offered to software developers for testing purposes from 2 months to 7 days, and this led to many security apps being flagged as incompatible and replaced with Windows Defender.
The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) is now investigating these claims, explaining that Microsoft might violate Part 1, Article 10 of the Federal Law regulating protection of competition.
The law “prohibits actions (omissions) of an economic dominant with the dominant position that lead or can lead to preventing, restricting, eliminating competition and (or) infringing the interests of other persons (economic entities) in business activities or consumers at large.”
Equality for all companies in Russia
Russia says that it’ll look into accusations as it wants “equal conditions” for all companies doing business in the country.
“Since Microsoft itself develops antivirus software - Windows Defender that switches on automatically if third-party software fails to adapt to Windows 10 in due time, such actions lead to unreasonable advantages for Microsoft on the software market. Our task is to ensure equal conditions for all participants on this market,” Deputy Head of FAS Anatoly Golomolzin explained in a statement.
This isn’t Microsoft’s only problem in Russia, as the government has recently announced that it would ban LinkedIn, the service that Redmond purchased earlier this year, after it failed to move user data on local servers and comply with Russian laws.
Furthermore, Microsoft is at the center of Russia’s push off foreign software, with President Vladimir Putin himself seeing the software giant as a main threat to national security, as he believes that products such as Windows and Office could be used by other governments to spy on the country.
Microsoft hasn’t yet issued a statement on Kaspersky’s claim or on this investigation started by Russia, but we’ve already contacted the company and we’ll update the article when an answer is received.