Microsoft says it has not violated law

BEIJING: Microsoft, which faces an anti-monopoly investigation in China over its business practices, today said that it has always abided by laws and regulations of the country and will "actively answer" questions raised in the case.

Microsoft has a monitoring and implementation mechanism to ensure compliance of its operations in different markets and there is no exception for the Chinese market, it said in a statement.

In May, China announced it would ban government use of Windows 8, Microsoft's latest operating system mostly due to suspicions about cloud technology which stores key information elsewhere.

The ban was sought to be explained to ensure computer security after Microsoft ended support for its Windows XP operating system, which was widely used on the mainland.

After that state-run broadcaster CCTV aired a strongly critical programme in which experts suggested Windows 8 was being used to grab information on Chinese citizens.

The State Administration for Industry & Commerce ( SAIC) confirmed yesterday it had visited Microsoft China Co Ltd, and three of its branches in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu.

SAIC is one of the Chinese government agencies with responsibility for anti-monopoly investigations.

SAIC said Microsoft had not fully disclosed anti-competition information about its Windows operating system and Microsoft Office application as required.

Inspectors are investigating a vice president and senior managers, and have made copies of the firm's financial statements and contracts.

The administration has seized documents, e-mails and other data from computers and servers, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

It has not been able to complete its investigation because key personnel are not in China or cannot be contacted.

In June last year, the SAIC investigated complaints from enterprises that Microsoft had used tie-in sales and verification codes in Windows and Microsoft Office that caused software incompatibility issues.

Microsoft failed to fully disclose information as required by the SAIC about such complaints in its reports submitted to the regulator, and may have breached China's Anti-Monopoly Law, the statement said.

Under the law, companies or individuals should not abuse their market dominance to exclude or restrict competition and should be supervised by the public.