A full investigation will be conducted by the Competition Commission in the European Union into IBM’s mainframe business. A rival company t3 Technologies filed a complaint against IBM alleging that the electronics and software giant abused its market position and prevented other competitors to create solutions interoperable with IBM’s products.

t3 Technologies claims that IBM tied sales of its operating system to sales of its hardware thus breaking competition rules. t3 had plans to file a complaint with the Commission last year but at that time there was only a talk with the watchdog. The company alleges that IBM withheld patent information and other intellectual property needed by rival firms to allow proper interoperability with Big Blue's products.

The investigation has been led by the European Commission since October 2007. It was then initiated by Platform Solutions (PSI). Although IBM purchased PSI the EU investigation still continued. The complaint of t3 was filed ‘on the very last day of the Bush administration’ as notes Ed Black, president of Computer & Communications Industry Association. CCIA also backs the complaint. According to Steven Friedman, president of t3, they did not file a formal complaint but did meet with the Commission in the middle of last year, and now they provided the Commission 500 pages of very comprehensive and compelling evidence.