Kaspersky still wants to sue Microsoft with European Commission over Defender

Kaspersky denies that it has shelved a competition complaint about Microsoft’s Defender. The plan is still to submit it to the European Commission ‘in the near future’. The company does admit that Microsoft has made positive adjustments.

Kaspersky certainly does not intend to temporarily refrain from filing a competition complaint with the European Commission, Eugene Kaspersky, chief executive of the security company, claims. Reports about this last week were based on statements made by him, but he now attributes them to possible translation errors. The CEO does not specify when the company will submit the complaints. He promises to provide details about it at a later date.

The Russian security company announced its aim in November last year. Kaspersky claims that Microsoft is making it difficult for other anti-virus products with the way Defender works in Windows 10. Microsoft denies abusing a dominant position. “Despite this formal denial, Microsoft has taken critical steps to improve the situation. And it appears our actions have helped push Microsoft to do so,” the company wrote.

Eugene Kaspersky mentions as an example that Microsoft has adjusted the display of Defender with the Creators Update of Windows 10. No longer does Defender show a red button that would invite Microsoft’s av program to be enabled instead of a third-party anti-virus suite. In addition, Microsoft now gives companies the option to show notifications, for example to encourage users to renew their license on av products. Finally, Microsoft has waived a block on the installation of two third-party av suites. This would limit security companies as users would no longer be able to run trials alongside their existing security suite.

Kaspersky speaks of ‘steps in the right direction’, but the company believes that more is needed for a ‘level playing field’, so it still plans to file the complaints with the EU.

The Defender view from before the Creators Update

The Defender view from Creators Update