Adobe threatens Microsoft with EU

Posted on 5 Jun 2006 at 10:39

Adobe is threatening to report Microsoft to European anti trust authorities if the company goes ahead with a '.PDF file save' feature in the new version of Office slated to appear next year. In response, Microsoft says it will remove the function from the latest beta of Office and offer it as a 'free download'.

Brian Jones, program manager for Office at Microsoft has expressed puzzlement in his blog as to why Adobe should threaten this course of action now. The announcement that a PDF File Save feature would be included in the new version of Office was made October of last year. Microsoft is also aggrieved that Adobe has always touted PDF as an open standard. Indeed, a number of other desktop productivity suites including those from WordPerfect, OpenOffice and Apple all include the save PDF function and trumpet it as a major feature.

According to Jones, Adobe wanted Microsoft to charge extra for the Save as PDF capability. He says that Microsoft will refuse to charge for the feature, especially given that others offer it for free. Instead, the company will offer it as a free download. Microsoft has already had to remove its rival XPS file format from Vista and Office under anti-competitive pressure.

If true, one can only assume that Adobe is willing to overlook the feature in other productivity packages because their overall market share is small and it makes Adobe look as though it is committed to open standards. On the other hand, Save As PDF in a software suite with the market reach of Office would put a huge dent in sales of Adobe Acrobat.

One of the reasons that Adobe has turned to the EU rather than the US anti-trust authorities is that Europe is already engaged in an increasingly EU has already warned Microsoft over features in Vista which may breach anti-competition rules. Adobe, by raising concerns about Office 2007 to the EU, will have shrewdly judged that Microsoft does not want another complication in its dealings with Europe as it gears up for the launch of Vista.

Author: Steve Malone