Microsoft looks to have another Europe-sized antitrust headache on its hands. Norwegian browser maker Opera has filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission, accusing Microsoft of abusing its dominant position in the browser market by tying Internet Explorer to Windows and by not complying with W3C web standards when it comes to how IE renders pages.

"We are filing this complaint on behalf of all consumers who are tired of having a monopolist make choices for them," said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO of Opera, in a statement. "In addition to promoting the free choice of individual consumers, we are a champion of open Web standards and cross-platform innovation. We cannot rest until we've brought fair and equitable options to consumers worldwide."

Opera has been around for over a decade. The first public release of its eponymous browser came in 1996 and was for Windows only. The company subsequently shipped versions for Mac OS and Linux while turning its attention towards the mobile browser space. The desktop version has been free for a couple of years; the company makes its money off the mobile versions (as well as those for the Nintendo DS and Wii). Fans of Opera—and there are a couple here in the Orbiting HQ—swear by it, but it has struggled to make a significant market share dent against either IE or Firefox. Most metrics firms peg Opera's market share in the 1 to 2 percent range.

Opera wants the EC to take two actions against Microsoft in response to the complaint. The first is fairly predictable: force Microsoft to either unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows or to have alternative browsers preinstalled on the desktop. The idea, of course, is that Opera would be one of those alternative browsers.

The second recommended remedy is a bit more subtle, but is also ultimately aimed at increasing Opera's market share. Opera wants the EC to force Microsoft to follow "fundamental and open" standards for how browsers render pages. Although version 7 has improved the situation somewhat, Internet Explorer still significantly lags behind Opera, Firefox, and Safari when it comes to standards compliance (although no browser is 100 percent compliant). Since it's still the dominant web browser with over 80 percent of the worldwide market, web developers are forced to make sure their sites render properly on IE, often to the detriment of standards compliance.

Opera wants the EC to hold Microsoft's feet to the fire when it comes to the company's promises of better standards compliance. The company argues that IE's "unilateral control" over some standards requires developers to expend significantly more in the way of time and money to get their sites to render correctly in IE.

In its complaint, the Norwegian company draws a clear parallel between the browser market and the media player market. Pointing out that the European Court of First Instance reaffirmed the EC's 2004 decision that Microsoft had illegally tied Windows Media Player to its OS (leading to the release of the unpopular Windows XP N), Opera asks the Commission to apply the same logic to the browser market. "We are simply asking the Commission to apply these same, clear principles to the Internet Explorer tie, a tie that has even more profound effects on consumers and innovation," said Opera deputy general counsel Jason Holda in a statement. "We are confident that the Commission understands the significance of the Internet Explorer tie and will take the necessary actions to restore competition and consumer choice in the browser market."

The rapid growth of Firefox

The state of competition in the browser market may actually work against Opera's complaint, however. Since its 1.0 release in November 2004, Firefox has gone from a blip on the browser radar to double-digit market share. Earlier this month, Mozilla's COO boasted that over 125 million people were using Firefox worldwide, less than three months after the browser scored its 400,000,000th download.

Europe, in particular, has become something of a stronghold for Firefox. As of July 2007, Firefox has surpassed 40 percent market share in three EU member nations. It had a 47.9 market share in Slovenia, a 45.4 percent share in Finland, and 40.4 percent share in Hungary. The open-source browser is also well above the 30 percent mark in other EU nations, including Germany, Ireland, the Czech Republic, and Poland.

Firefox has managed its surge in popularity without the benefit of bundling agreements (and there's no reason why Opera can't negotiate agreements of its own) and in the same competitive environment that Opera has faced—a fact that may work against the Norwegian browser maker. The standards-compliance argument may gain more traction with the EC, which has proven itself more willing to take a hands-on approach to competition than its counterpart across the Atlantic.