Watchdog may need to study Microsoft’s Greek deal

The Competition Commission will intervene and cancel the contract Greece has signed with Microsoft if it is found to be in breach of European Union legislation on competition, the commission’s president, Spyros Zisimopoulos, told a parliamentary committee yesterday.

He was asked by deputies who are Institution and Transparency Committee members whether the agreement ratified recently by Parliament had a monopolistic character. However, New Democracy Deputy Manolis Kefaloyiannis stated that the contract does not exclude rival software companies.

Zisimopoulos stressed that this is a hard case which the Commission may need to examine: “If the legislation concerns only the national competition law, then the national commission does not have the right to intervene,” he said.

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