25^th July, 2000.

Ref CP/0671/00
Competition Policy Division
Competition Branch 4
Office of Fair Trading (OFT)
Fleet Bank House
2-6 Salisbury Square
London
EC4Y 8JX

Further to my telephone call dated Friday 9th of June at 3.17pm. The following is an example of anti-competitive practice being carried out by Microsoft in the UK right now. Microsoft has been giving away, for free, Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, which meant that Netscape was force to give their Internet package away for free (They had previously charged at least £45). This also means that other internet software providers are having their market share minimised. This is destroyer pricing, i.e. selling below cost. Obviously the product cost a great deal to develop and update, yet they are selling it for nothing. This stifles competition in this part of the IT market. Both companies are already well established in the UK market. Destroyer pricing is aimed at removing competition from the market, so that prices can be raised and your market share is protected. The cost of doing this is borne by over charging on other products in the market where Microsoft has no effective competition.

This is a formal complaint against Microsoft.