European Union competition regulators have begun two anti-trust probes against IBM, suspecting it of abusing its dominant position on the mainframe computer market.
One investigation followed complaints by emulator software vendors T3 and Turbo Hercules against IBM's practices, and focuses on the US computer giant's alleged tying of mainframe hardware to its mainframe operating system.
The second probe, opened on the European Commission's own initiative, concerns alleged discriminatory behaviour towards competing suppliers of mainframe maintenance services.
"The Commission has concerns that IBM may have engaged in anti-competitive practices with a view to foreclosing the market for maintenance services..., in particular by restricting or delaying access to spare parts for which IBM is the only source," said the Commission, which enforces the EU's competition rules and can fine companies that break them.
In a statement today, IBM said it would cooperate with the investigations. However, it said there was no merit to the claims. IBM said "certain competitors" were using regulators to create a market position "that they have not earned".
Mainframes are powerful computers which are used by many large companies and government institutions worldwide to store and process critical business information, with the vast majority of corporate data worldwide residing on mainframes.
In 2009 approximately €8.5 billion worldwide and €3 billion in the European Economic Area were spent on new mainframe hardware and operating systems.
The Commission said that T3 and Turbo Hercules had alleged IBM had been illegally tying its mainframe hardware products to its dominant mainframe operating system.
According to the complaints, the tying shuts out providers of emulation technology which enable the users to run applications on non-IBM hardware.
IBM said it had made the decision to invest billions of dollars in its mainframe technology at a time when others had declared the mainframe server market dead. It described the mainframe server as "a small niche in the overall, highly-competitive server landscape".
"IBM is fully entitled to enforce its intellectual property rights and protect the investments we have made in our technologies," the company said in a statement. "Competition and intellectual property laws are complementary and designed to promote competition and innovation, and IBM fully supports these policies. But IBM will not allow the fruits of its innovation and investment to be pirated by its competition through baseless allegations."
Additional reporting: Reuters