EU: Internet Explorer harms competition

The European Commission accused Microsoft Corp. Friday of violating competition law by including its Internet Explorer Web browser in Windows operating systems. The executive arm of the European Union said it had reached the preliminary view that the company had prevented rival browsers from competing and had infringed EU rules on abuse of dominant position. It said Microsoft had eight weeks to reply to the "statement of objections" it sent to the company, in which it threatened to impose a fine on the U.S. software giant if its preliminary findings were confirmed.