Eugene Kaspersky of Kaspersky Labs filed a formal antitrust complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission and the German Federal Cartel Office on Tuesday. The firm claims the tech giant favors Windows Defender in Windows 10 over third-party antivirus software.
The executive accused claims Microsoft tampers other companies’ programs to make its solutions look better in the eyes of customers. Back in November, Kaspersky got in touch with Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service.
The Redmond-based company says it has reached out to the antivirus firm several times to meet and talk about their differences.
Microsoft has proven to be a competent problem solver in the last few months dealing with security threats before they do significant damage.
Why is Kaspersky so mad with Microsoft?
The problems between the two companies are not recent. The antivirus provider has accused the big M of engaging in questionable business practices in the past. Kaspersky even says most developers are aware of the situation but don’t report it.
The tech giant made aggressive moves for users to upgrade to Windows 10, and some might even say they were forced by the company to install the new OS.
Others had no choice, as reports abounded about turning computers on only to find the operating system up and running.
It might not sound like a big deal, but Kaspersky claims Microsoft has extended the abuse of their market dominance to force users into using only its software. Even back in Windows 8, the company stated there was no need to install or pay for antivirus software.
Moreover, the Russian developers say that their Redmond counterpart uses underhand tactics to neglect third party AV by not letting users know about an expiring license. The OS then leaves users with no option other than to use Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Defender.
Kaspersky also accused the tech giant of not giving them enough time to meet safety standards and ensure compatibility with upcoming Windows updates, resulting in faulty releases that are then deemed incompatible and pushed aside in favor of other solutions.
It is all the more worrisome when Kaspersky brings experts’ opinions to the table. Their antivirus solutions ranked higher than Microsoft’s regarding performance, detection of real threats, and efficient use of system resources on independent tests.
The support staff might be lying to clients
The complaint also says the Microsoft Support Team tells customers to uninstall third-party antivirus, suggesting those products could cause problems to the system.
The leading executive has three main demands for Microsoft:
“WE WANT MICROSOFT TO STOP MISLEADING AND MISINFORMING OUR USERS. WE WANT TO SEE ALL SECURITY SOLUTIONS BEING ABLE TO WORK ON THE WINDOWS PLATFORM (…) AND TO SEE USERS BEING ABLE TO DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES WHAT THEY WANT.”
A spokesperson for the tech giant gave a statement to the media, saying they had reached out to Kaspersky months ago for a meeting at the “executive level” to hear feedback from him and their developers. The meeting has yet to take place, according to Microsoft.
Source: Kaspersky Labs