BRUSSELS, July 26 (UPI) -- The European Commission said Monday it would investigate IBM Corp. to clear up two antitrust allegations involving its dominance in mainframe computers.
One case involves complaints by "emulator software vendors T3 and Turbo Hercules," which allege the U.S. technology giant linked mainframe hardware production unfairly to its own operating system.
The commission also said it was investigating "discriminatory behavior toward competing suppliers of mainframe maintenance services.
Allegedly, IBM tying the mainframe hardware to its operating system "shuts out providers of emulation technology which could enable the users to run critical applications on non-IBM hardware," the commission said.
Emulation software provides the same function as an original program.
The mainframe industry is critical to business. Annually, it is an $11 billion business worldwide and an $4 billion business in Europe, the commission said.
"It is estimated that the vast majority of corporate data worldwide resides on mainframes," the commission said.
