Russia: Kasperskys claims Windows bundle is anti-competitive

After Eugene Kaspersky, the founder of Kaspersky Lab, ripped into Microsoft for anti-competitive behavior in Windows 10, the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) opened a case against Microsoft for “abusing dominance.”

Microsoft claimed to have a “long history of cooperation” with Kaspersky and that it is “committed to work in full compliance with Russian law.”

Yet, Russia has already decided to block Microsoft-owned LinkedIn since the law requires Russian citizens’ personal data to be stored on servers within its country. In the past, Microsoft made LinkedIn censorship changes to cater to China, as opposed to being blocked like Google and Facebook. It remains to be seen if Microsoft will localize Russian users’ data as the country’s law demands. The New York Times added that it was unclear why LinkedIn was targeted, “rather than any other major social networking site,” but that is a “sign of growing tensions for American tech companies operating” in Russia.

Speaking of growing tensions, Kaspersky has “had enough” and roasted Microsoft toasty last week for anti-competitive bundling in Windows 10, namely the way the bundled Defender is Microsoft’s way of “squeezing independent developers out of the Windows ecosystem if it has its own application for this or that purpose.”

When upgrading, Windows 10 does have a habit of uninstalling users’ apps and replacing them with Microsoft-flavored versions. Even after selecting “Keep personal files and apps” during the upgrade process, third-party software can get axed and that includes antivirus. Kaspersky wants Microsoft to knock off that behavior and stop “foisting its Defender on the user, which isn’t beneficial from the point of view of protection of a computer against cyberattacks.”

Full Content: Network World

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