At the end of 2009, the European Commission closed two long-running investigations into misuse of market power afforded to companies whose patented technology had been incorporated into industry standards: the Rambus case and the Qualcomm case.

The start of the year has seen antitrust authorities in Europe consider new cases against familiar foes. A new set of concerns have been raised in respect of the way in which Microsoft packages its web browser Internet Explorer with its dominant Windows PC operating system.