The antitrust police are after Microsoft again, but this time in Russia. Unlike other antitrust investigations involving Windows, the Russian case is focusing on Microsoft’s phase-out of XP, rather than bundling of various components into the base operating system.

The Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) announced on June 4 it had opened an investigation of Microsoft. The charges — according to a version of a note on the government’s Web site, which I translated into English using the handy Bing Translator: Cutting off sales of XP as of June 2008, despite the fact there remains continuing demand for XP.

While the FAS notes that Microsoft is continuing to provide XP via “downgrade rights,” which are available for certain versions of Windows Vista, there seems to be some kind of problem with “setting different prices (tariffs) at the same item,” according to the translated complaint.

The charges against Microsoft will “be considered” by the Russian antitrust body on July 24.

Read More @ ZDNet

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