Becta asks EC to probe Microsoft school deals | The Register

Microsoft’s plans to get Office 2007 into British classrooms suffered a fresh blow yesterday when Becta confirmed that it has referred an interoperability complaint to the European Commission (EC).

The latest move from the UK’s education technology agency follows its complaint to the Office of Fair Trading in October last year. Becta said Microsoft was guilty of unfair licensing practices in the schools software market.

Becta also alleged that the software giant’s latest office suite contains too many restrictions to be fully interoperable with other document formats.

The schools tech body said in a statement yesterday that it had officially complained to the EC and handed over “supporting evidence”.