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Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission says it is looking for possible antitrust violations in Microsoft's decision to end mainstream Windows XP sales at the end of June, according to reports this morning. The investigation follows a complaint last week in which the Taiwan Consumers' Foundation said the decision effectively forces people to choose Windows Vista, the newer version of the operating system.

The China Post quoted Hsieh Tien-jen, Consumers' Foundation acting chairman, as he delivered the complaint last week: "We suggest that the FTC slap Microsoft with a heavy fine for impairing market fairness."

In the annals of Microsoft legal history, this is a new one.

"It would be a very unusual and creative interpretation of antitrust law to say that a company is obliged to keep selling a product,'' Brendon Carr, a lawyer with the firm Hwang Mok Park in Seoul, told Bloomberg News.

Paul Thurrott of Windows IT Pro put a finer point on what he calls the "legal silliness," saying that it's "hard to imagine any legal entity requiring Microsoft to begin reselling an ancient software product that is not as functional, secure, or reliable as its successor."

Officials in Taiwan say the investigation could last as long as six months. The AFP wire service quotes an unnamed Fair Trade Commission official: "We are just beginning to probe Microsoft's conduct, looking at whether it uses the monopoly advantage in the market to sell Vista. We want to ensure fair market competition will be maintained."

Said David Bowermaster, a Microsoft spokesman in Redmond: "We fully intend to work with the TFTC to make sure they get whatever information they need, and we will continue to work with the Consumer Foundation to address the concerns that it has identified."

Microsoft cut off sales of Windows XP at the end of June at retail and on mainstream PCs, despite a campaign to save it, fueled in part by consumer and business wariness of Windows Vista. The company has continued to make the 7-year-old operating system available to custom system builders and on "ultra low-cost" computers, such as the Asus Eee PC.