Kaspersky Lab settles beef with Microsoft

Kaspersky Lab has dropped its antitrust complaints against Microsoft after the latter company agreed to modify the way it handles third-party security software in Windows.

Kaspersky Lab filed complaints with the European Commission and the German Federal Cartel Office in June accusing Microsoft of abusing its dominant position in the operating system market to unfairly promote the use of Windows Defender over third-party products.

In response to the complaints and feedback from other antivirus vendors, Microsoft has agreed to work more closely with vendors on compatibility reviews in advance of each feature update.

The company will also give antivirus providers better visibility around release schedules for Windows 10 updates, including by increasing the amount of time partners will have to review final builds before they are rolled out.

Microsoft will also allow antivirus providers to use their own alerts and notifications to review antivirus products around the time of expiry and modify how Windows informs users when their antivirus application has expired.

This will involve a new persistent notification that will require users to choose to either renew their existing antivirus product or rely on Windows Defender or another antivirus provider.

In a blog post, Kaspersky Lab VP of Consumer Products Andrei Mochola said the company is “absolutely satisfied” with Microsoft’s changes and will withdraw its outstanding antitrust claims and “inform all regulatory bodies that we no longer have any matters for Microsoft to address”.

“We have a long history of cooperation with Microsoft, and we sincerely believe that these changes will make the cybersecurity market healthier, resulting in better protection for all users. Protecting information and the data that matters most to our users remains our primary goal,” he said.

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