NEWS & ANALYSIS

EU Commission initiates formal investigations against IBM in two cases of suspected abuse of dominant market position

by Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission

(26 July, 2010)

The European Commission has decided to initiate formal antitrust investigations against IBM Corporation in two separate cases of alleged infringements of EU antitrust rules related to the abuse of a dominant market position (Article 102 TFEU). Both cases are related to IBM's conduct on the market for mainframe computers. The first case follows complaints by emulator software vendors T3 and Turbo Hercules, and focuses on IBM's alleged tying of mainframe hardware to its mainframe operating system. The second is an investigation begun on the Commission's own initiative of IBM's alleged discriminatory behaviour towards competing suppliers of mainframe maintenance services.

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BowlerRoger Bowler Responds to IBM Patent Attack on Open Source

by Roger Bowler Creator of Hercules and Co-founder of TurboHercules

(Posted in News & Blogs section of turbohercules.com on 6 April, 2010)

As many of you know, the company I founded to promote the Hercules open source mainframe emulator, TurboHercules SAS, has filed an antitrust complaint against IBM with the European Commission in Brussels. We are not asking that IBM be subjected to punishing fines or anything like that. We simply want IBM to agree to allow legitimate paying customers of its z/OS mainframe operating system to deploy that software on the hardware platforms of their choice – including, should they so choose, on low-cost servers using Intel or AMD microprocessors and Hercules.

I want to make clear that we undertook this action reluctantly, and only after a long period of reflection during which we reached out to IBM to see if there was some way to resolve our differences amicably. I regret to report that IBM rebuffed our efforts at conciliation, and even added fuel to the fire by launching accusations against Hercules. I would like to take this opportunity to respond to some of those charges.

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The Issues of Competition in Mainframe and Associated Services in India

by Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations and Indicus Analytics

Very little is known about the extent and nature of competition in the mainframe and associated services market in India. This is the first study to analyze competition and related issues in the Indian server market, with an extensive focus on mainframe computing.

Download the report PDF (4MB)

Steven FriedmanThe T3 Technologies story

by Steven Friedman, T3 Technologies

For over 15 years, my company was a successful IBM Business Partner. I used to have a thriving company with over 50 employees, nearly 1,000 customers in 28 countries (including 200 customers in 15 European Community states) and a profitable revenue stream earned through selling mainframe solutions to IBM customers. However, now our company is effectively out of business due to the direct actions of the company I used to be closely aligned with: IBM.

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Tuesday
Jan202009

2009 T3 European Commission Complaint

On July 1, 2008, T3 Technologies Inc. announced its intent to file a formal antitrust complaint against IBM with the European Commission over alleged anti-competitive behavior in the European computer mainframe market. T3 further announced in August 2008 that it had retained the Brussels office of the London-based law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP to prepare and file the EU complaint. T3 also retained several expert witnesses to provide reports and documentation in support of its case.

T3 believes that IBM, as the dominant mainframe vendor, has shut out it and other manufacturers from sales in the market by ending support for older mainframe systems and not licensing its mainframe software.

On January 20, 2009, T3 Technologies, Inc. announced it filed a formal complaint against International Business Machines with the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition (DG-Comp) in Brussels.

T3’s complaint alleges a history of IBM abusing its monopoly power in the mainframe industry. T3 accuses IBM of engaging in a range of anti-competitive actions, including preventing the sales of competing mainframe hardware products by tying the sale of its operating system to its mainframe hardware, and withholding patent licenses and certain intellectual property to the detriment of mainframe customers.

On July 26, 2010, the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission announced it had launched "formal antitrust investigations against IBM Corporation in two separate cases of alleged infringements of EU antitrust rules related to the abuse of a dominant market position. Both cases are related to IBM's conduct on the market for mainframe computers." The first investigation is in response to complaints from T3 and TurboHercules SAS. The second investigation was "begun on the Commission's own initiative of IBM's alleged discriminatory behaviour towards competing suppliers of mainframe maintenance services." This second investigation is not related to T3's complaint.

T3 Technologies issued a press release which can be found here.

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