The public procurement procedure of 25 billion HUF (approx. 100 million euro) for the supply of "Microsoft or other equivalent solutions" was published in January 2008 in the Tenders Electronic Daily, Supplement to the Official Journal of the EU. After the successful closing of the procedure, three companies distributing open source software challenged the result. They argued that the tender was anti-competitive, because Microsoft products were directly favoured in the procedure.

The Hungarian Public Procurement Authority refused the request to annul the procedure. This latter decision has been challenged by the Hungarian Competition Office (HCO) before the court. HCO claims that the tender infringed the principle of equal treatment and was restrictive on competition. The first court hearing was held on 8 July 2008, but no judgement was made. The next hearing will be held this Autumn.

Neither Microsoft nor the open source software companies are directly involved in the legal dispute; however if the court decides in favour of the HCO, the judgement may change the current practice on public procurement of software in Hungary. It has been an established custom in public procurement of software that some well-known software or software manufacturers are expressly mentioned in the calling for tenders. The State's main argument is that it is merely a practical way to provide the specifications of the tender. Depending on the final outcome of the ongoing proceedings, this practice may need to be reconsidered in order to avoid possible legal disputes based on competition infringement claims.

Simultaneously with the court proceedings, the three companies (ULX Kft., Multiráció Kft. and Open SKM) requested the European Commission and personally Neelie Kroes, the Competition Commissioner, to take the appropriate steps to put an end to this unlawful situation.

Hungarian companies send complaint to the European Commission on Microsoft's monopoly (3.06.2008)
http://www.openskm.com/doc/pressrelease_ec.pdf

Something Rotten in Hungary (21.05.2008)
http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=49451

EDRi-gram: Microsoft appeals the EC fine but faces even more complaints (21.05.2008)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.10/microsoft-ec-fine

(contribution by László Pók - Lexical Lawyers Association - Hungary)