Opera just filed an antitrust suit against Microsoft in Redmond’s least favorite place to litigate, the EU. The suit claims that Microsoft is stifling competition by distributing Internet Explorer in its Windows OS. The Norwegian company, backed by the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS), a long-time opponent of Microsoft, is asking the EU Commission to force Microsoft to comply with industry standards for web browsers and either unbundle IE from the OS or include other browsers along side IE. That would be the Opera Browser we presume, eh Opera (wink, wink). Unlike Apple, Nokia/Symbian, and others who also bundle browsers in their OSes, Opera argues that web designers build their sites with IE in mind due to its dominant position in the marketplace and non-compliance with industry standards for web browsing. As such, other browsers won’t render some pages correctly — a disincentive for users to browse with anything other than Microsoft’s IE.

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