Microsoft Under Fire in South Korea

While much has been made of Microsoft's antitrust woes in both the European Union and the United States, not much has been said about its problems in other areas of the world.

One place where Microsoft is still fighting claims of monopolistic behavior is South Korea, and that country's Fair Trade Commission said Tuesday that it is close to a decision on allegations that the company shut out local messaging clients by bundling Windows Messenger with its operating system.

Daum Communications, operator of a South Korean Internet portal, first raised the antitrust concerns in September 2001. Daum operates chat software and says Microsoft harmed its business by using its position in the market to quickly grow its own messaging client.

The probe also includes a complaint by RealNetworks, which says the bundling of Windows Media Player is an unfair practice to competitors. Microsoft says the complaints are without merit and plans to cooperate.

If the issues raised by Daum and Real sound familiar, that's because they are; similar complaints have been filed in both the United States and in Europe. Based on those two cases, it's likely some kind of sanction will be handed down when the South Korean FTC issues a final ruling in late September.

In the United States, the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust ruling nearly resulted in the breakup of Microsoft, and in Europe, Redmond was fined 497 million euros and ordered to remove Windows Media Player from its operating system.