A lobby group backed by Nokia, Oracle and IBM has joined forces with the European Commission in its antitrust battle with Microsoft, the Financial Times says.
The European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS), a technology and software industry organisation, has asked to intervene on the EU executive's side as it contests an appeal by the software giant, the newspaper said on Wednesday.
"The involvement of ECIS and its members reflects a continuing and, in fact, growing concern within the technology industry about a wide range of anti-competitive behaviour by Microsoft," the FT quoted ECIS lawyer Thomas Vinje as saying.
In a landmark ruling last year the Commission found Microsoft had abused the near-monopoly of its Windows computer operating system to crush competition. It fined the world's biggest software maker nearly 500 million euros (340 million pounds) and ordered it to change its business practices.
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