THE EUROPEAN Commission has started investigating Microsoft's OOXML standard under procurement rules instead of the old competition statute with which they usually bash the software giant.

The Danish Unix User Group (DKUUG) complained to the EC's competition regulators in February about a Danish government mandate on the use of software standards. But the Competition lot didn't want to know about it.

The European Commission confirmed today that its Internal Market people had taken up the complaint. They were examining it to see if it constituted an infringement of procurement rules.

An EC spokeswoman said the EC was not ready to say any more on the matter: " The complaint is still under examination by DG MARKT services."

Things have moved on since the original complaint, under which the DKUUG said that the Danish government's decision to mandate the use of OOXML gave Microsoft an unfair competitive advantage.

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