The EU's New Heat on Microsoft

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How open is open?

But the ground has been shifting under Microsoft's seemingly unassailable market position. With the explosion of digital records generated by governments, companies, and consumers, there's a growing push to ensure they don't get locked into a format that prevents a document's contents from being compatible with other applications. There's also a movement afoot, led by the likes of Google (GOOG), to move these applications and document storage to the Internet, where they can be created and saved using a Web browser.

Microsoft's attempts to push its own new document format—which it claims is open and critics say is not—is coming under the scrutiny of antitrust authorities in Brussels and could lead to yet another legal showdown. "It is very clear that the Commission is examining OOXML and must examine it in order to properly investigate the complaint regarding Office," says Thomas Vinje, the top lawyer for a trade group that filed the latest complaint, the European Committee for Interoperable Systems. That group is backed by Microsoft rivals including IBM (IBM), Oracle (ORCL), Sun Microsystems (JAVA), Adobe Systems (ADBE), and Red Hat (RHT). Sun and IBM are two of the companies behind the ODF standard that is competing with OOXML.

Representatives from standards bodies in some 37 countries are meeting in Geneva this week to discuss whether Microsoft's OOXML format should be designated as open by ISO. If ISO fails to approve OOXML as a standard, Microsoft could lose more customers than just European governments. The governments could require corporations doing business with them to use ODF instead of Microsoft's standard, says Gartner's Silver.

Rivals: It's Corporate Hubris

With the stakes so high, the entire OOXML standards process has been racked with controversy, including allegations of vote rigging. Microsoft's attempt to fast-track the standard failed. And since then, some 2,500 pages of technical quibbles with Microsoft's standard have been submitted to ISO's executive committee. A final decision is expected in March.

Microsoft declined a request to discuss the OOXML issue. It appears to remain hopeful, though, that OOXML will be adopted. "The quality and commitment with which the global standards community has contributed its collective expertise on (OOXML) is a testament to the importance of the technology to the global community and that this process works," it said in a statement released Feb. 27. "The resulting standard will not only be much improved but also be worthy of broad adoption."

But Microsoft's aggressive attempts to get its standard adopted are typical of the behavior that landed the company in hot water with the EU in the first place, say rivals, who are counting on the European Commission to press on with its efforts to rein in the U.S. software Goliath.

Schenker is a BusinessWeek correspondent in Paris.