Kaspersky seeks investigation on Microsoft’s security products

Russian security software firm Kaspersky has filed an anti-trust complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission which alleges that US software supplier, Microsoft pushes its own security products on Windows 10 users. Kaspersky has asked the regulators to investigate Microsoft over its practices related to Windows Defender. The Moscow-based company had previously complained to the Russian Federal Anti-monopoly Service (Fas) as it believed that Microsoft is abusing its market dominant position to favour Windows Defender over other IT security products.

"These actions by Microsoft lead to a lower level of protection for users, a limitation on their right to choose, and financial losses both for users and security solution manufacturers," Kaspersky said in a statement, according to the BBC News website.

Kaspersky has applied to both the European Commission and the German Federal Cartel Office for Microsoft's abuse. However, Microsoft has said its security features "comply with competition laws" and that it would answer whatever questions the regulator has.

"Microsoft's primary objective is to keep customers protected and we are confident that the security features of Windows 10 comply with competition laws. We're always interested in feedback from other companies and we engage deeply with antimalware vendors and have taken a number of steps to address their feedback. We reached out directly to Kaspersky a number of months ago offering to meet directly at an executive level to better understand their concerns, but that meeting has not yet taken place."