European Union IBM competition cases
Encyclopedia
On July 26, 2010, the European Commission
announced two separate antitrust investigations against International Business Machines (IBM)
. Both cases were related to alleged abuse of IBM's dominant position in the mainframe
market. The first case followed complaints by mainframe emulator vendors T3 Technologies and TurboHercules, later joined by Neon Enterprise Software, and focused on the alleged tying of IBM's mainframe hardware to its mainframe operating system, potentially precluding customers from the execution of mission critical mainframe applications on non-IBM servers. The second case was an investigation begun on the EC's own initiative that looked into IBM's alleged discriminatory behaviour towards competing suppliers of mainframe maintenance services.
In its initial reaction to the EC's decision, IBM said that the allegations had been brought forward by "satellite proxies" of rival Microsoft
. (Microsoft itself was the subject of an epic series of EU antitrust cases prompted in part by IBM
)
IBM also noted that the company holds numerous US patents (some of which have also been filed in Europe) on its mainframe hardware technologies to protect its ongoing billions of dollars in new mainframe technology investments, that the vendors did not seek and did not pay for licenses to those patents, and that IBM should not be required to support infringement of its own patents.
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
announced two separate antitrust investigations against International Business Machines (IBM)
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
. Both cases were related to alleged abuse of IBM's dominant position in the mainframe
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
market. The first case followed complaints by mainframe emulator vendors T3 Technologies and TurboHercules, later joined by Neon Enterprise Software, and focused on the alleged tying of IBM's mainframe hardware to its mainframe operating system, potentially precluding customers from the execution of mission critical mainframe applications on non-IBM servers. The second case was an investigation begun on the EC's own initiative that looked into IBM's alleged discriminatory behaviour towards competing suppliers of mainframe maintenance services.
In its initial reaction to the EC's decision, IBM said that the allegations had been brought forward by "satellite proxies" of rival Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
. (Microsoft itself was the subject of an epic series of EU antitrust cases prompted in part by IBM
)
IBM also noted that the company holds numerous US patents (some of which have also been filed in Europe) on its mainframe hardware technologies to protect its ongoing billions of dollars in new mainframe technology investments, that the vendors did not seek and did not pay for licenses to those patents, and that IBM should not be required to support infringement of its own patents.