IBM launched two EU anti-trust investigation

The European Commission announced on the 26th, the U.S. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) suspected abuse in a large computer (mainframe) market dominance, the European Commission will launch two of its antitrust investigation.

The European Commission said in a statement the same day, the first survey may be related to IBM mainframe hardware and its market-dominant in the mainframe operating system software bundled. This approach led to accusations IBM competitors are unable to provide simulation technology, allows users to non-IBM hardware, the application of critical procedures, so the European Commission filed complaints.

The second initiative launched by the European Commission survey. The European Commission noted that, IBM mainframe maintenance provider on the existence of discriminatory practices, including restricting or refusing to provide proprietary parts.

The European Commission said the two cases will start "key" investigation, the initiation of the investigation itself is not that IBM has already mastered the illegal evidence.

Mainframe because of its powerful, safe, being more used in large corporations and government agencies, used to store and handle sensitive information. It is estimated that the global annual purchase of mainframe equipment and software cost about 8.5 billion euros, of which only the European market was 30 billion euros.