Just before the weekend I heard that the European Commission (EC) was to demand that Microsoft stop bundling Internet Explorer (IE) in Windows, and that was after Norwegian Opera Software ASA complained to the EU about the software giant’s bundling practices and alleged undermining of Web standards. If I am not mistaken the complain was delivered in 2007. I must admit I am very surprised, and I once again share the thoughts of Paul Thurrot at WindowsITPro:

That IE has been consistently losing market share to its number one rival, Mozilla Firefox, seems to have made little impression on the EC, which has consistently proven to be more interested in shoring up Microsoft’s competition than worry about market realities. And that’s especially true is the competition that complains about Microsoft happens to be from an EU country.

“Microsoft’s tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system harms competition between web browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice,” the EC said in a prepared statement. The statement arrives just a week after market researchers announced that IE fell from 74 percent of the market in 2007 to 68 percent by the end of 2008. The main beneficiary of that gap was Firefox, which jumped to over 21 percent of the market during the same time frame …

… However, Opera is unique among non-Microsoft browser makers in that it did not make market share gains in 2008. Firefox, Apple Safari, and Google Chrome all gained on IE during this time period. Perhaps the problem is Opera, not Microsoft’s business practices. After all, consumers do have choice; they’re just not choosing Opera.

If that wasn’t enough, Chief Development Officer Christen Krogh told CNET News that the fact that “There has been more competition before“, referring to the Netscape and pre-Netscape days. Wake up (våkn opp!), the battle has never been bigger, and the Opera browser is the only one not taking part in it. He continues with even if IE’s market share drops to below 60 percent in Europe, “we think that is sufficiently high to be concerned.”

The amusement continues: “Opera noted that it follows the same principles applied by the EU in 2004, when it held that Microsoft could not tie its media player to Windows and ordered the software maker to offer a version with the media player stripped out”. Yepp, and that was a huge success?  We all now buy Windows without the media player? ha-ha-ha. Well, also here Microsoft is doing things different with Windows 7, it will not include Windows Mail, Messenger and a few other applications. That is not caused by EU or Opera Software.

And regarding Microsoft not following standards: Surprise, surprise, with Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft has changed practice (Again, Opera goes far in claiming that they forced Microsoft to reconsider its position on standards in IE8). The browser will have full support for CSS 2.1 and gets full score on the ACID 2 test. Other great improvements are done in the area of accessibility, as for instance W3C’s ARIA standard. And I guess that is not the only standard they have chosen to follow!

After I read the news, I got fed up and uninstalled the Opera 10 Alpha. From now on I will stick to Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer, and play a little bit with Google Chrome.  I wonder if Firefox actually has an even bigger market share in EU?