A computing trade body has filed a complaint against Sun Microsystems with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), claiming that the computer giant has created an effective monopoly in the second-hand sales of its machines in Europe.

Sun says that it is operating legally and that it is not acting anti-competitively. The complaint is being made against Sun's UK subsidiary by the Association of Service and Computer Dealers International (ASCDI), which represents computer resellers.

ASCDI claims that in 2006 Sun began to ban the reselling in Europe of any of its products that were not originally made available for sale in Europe. It says that Sun insisted that to sell products in Europe not licensed originally for sale there would be trade mark infringement.

Sun then stopped giving resellers information about what machines were originally made available for sale in Europe, says ASCDI, meaning that its members could not safely sell any Sun equipment in Europe.

"[Sun] began a policy of refusing to provide such information whenever requested by independent resellers," said an ASCDI statement. "The ASCDI supports Sun’s legitimate trade mark rights, but Sun has made it impossible to know whether a given Sun product is or has been placed on the EEA market with Sun’s consent."

“Sun’s policy effectively closes the secondary market trade in Sun products to anyone other than Sun. It is anti-competitive behaviour plain and simple,” said ASCDI president Joe Marion.

The body says that every other major manufacturer, including IBM, HP and Cisco, makes the data, called provenance information, available to resellers.

ASCDI's complaint to the OFT claims that Sun's behaviour is prohibited under Chapter II of the Competition Act. That chapter deals with abuse of a dominant position.

Sun rejects the charge that it is acting illegally. "Sun has not seen the complaint or been contacted by the OFT," said a Sun statement. "It appears, however, that the basis of ASCDI’s complaint is that by taking perfectly legitimate steps to enforce its registered trade mark rights and by declining to make commercially sensitive sales information publicly available, Sun has in some way breached the UK Competition Act 1998."

"Sun categorically denies that it is in any way acting in an anti-competitive manner or that its actions amount in any sense to an abuse of any dominant market position. In the event that the OFT decides that the complaint by the ASCDI is worthy of further investigation Sun will of course co-operate fully with the inquiry," it said.
ASCDI's complaint says that Sun's behaviour has had a real impact on the market. "As a result of Sun’s policy not to disclose provenance information, there is diminished competition in the secondary market for Sun products," said its summary of its complaint. "Some independent resellers have had to make costly transitions of their businesses to other products. Some have been left holding large inventories of Sun products that can not be sold or will sell at reduced values, and at least one reseller has gone out of business."

"Customers' and end users’ market choices for Sun products are limited. As the secondary market retracts, prices for new and used Sun equipment will rise and residual values decline," it said.

The complaint asks that Sun provide the information without fees to resellers, and without notifying its own sales teams of what information has been provided.

We are processing your request. \n Thank you for your patience. An error occurred. This could be due to inactivity on the page - please try again.