This statement, as written, is false.
In both the US and the EU, it is only illegal if you use certain techniques to accomplish it, and only then, if it has actual anticompetitive effects.
For example, Microsoft performed a technique known as tying.
But even the claim was not simply "they shipped IE with Windows 98" , or that they introduced other product features to work well with IE first, but "they made IE deliberately difficult to remove, and deliberately and intentfully made it harder for netscape navigator to work". This is not the same as "we made IE the best, and did nothing to competitive products". In particular, it is not the fact that they introduced stuff to IE first, it is the fact that they deliberately harmed the other products.
Even then, the court held the tying should be analyzed deferentially, and that the US would have to prove this had actual anticompetitive effect.
See in particular, the court's admonition at 93
"As a general rule, courts are properly very skeptical about claims that competition has been harmed by a dominant firm's product design changes. See, e.g., Foremost Pro Color, Inc. v. Eastman Kodak Co., 703 F.2d 534, 544-45 (9th Cir. 1983). In a competitive market, firms routinely innovate in the hope of appealing to consumers, sometimes in the process making their products incompatible with those of rivals; the imposition of liability when a monopolist does the same thing will inevitably deter a certain amount of innovation. This is all the more true in a market, such as this one, in which the product itself is rapidly changing. See Findings of Fact p 59. Judicial deference to product innovation, however, does not mean that a monopolist's product design decisions are per se lawful. See Foremost Pro Color, 703 F.2d at 545; see also Cal. Computer Prods., 613 F.2d at 739, 744; In re IBM Peripheral EDP Devices Antitrust Litig., 481 F. Supp. 965, 1007-08 (N.D. Cal. 1979)."
Note that these are also tying between sold products and given away products, not justgiven away products. Otherwise, open source linux distributions with large market share would have tying issues (and in fact, they've been unsuccessfully sued for illegal competition before)
For example, Microsoft performed a technique known as tying.
But even the claim was not simply "they shipped IE with Windows 98" , or that they introduced other product features to work well with IE first, but "they made IE deliberately difficult to remove, and deliberately and intentfully made it harder for netscape navigator to work". This is not the same as "we made IE the best, and did nothing to competitive products". In particular, it is not the fact that they introduced stuff to IE first, it is the fact that they deliberately harmed the other products.
See paragraphs 94, 95, and 96 on http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/253/...
Even then, the court held the tying should be analyzed deferentially, and that the US would have to prove this had actual anticompetitive effect.
See in particular, the court's admonition at 93
"As a general rule, courts are properly very skeptical about claims that competition has been harmed by a dominant firm's product design changes. See, e.g., Foremost Pro Color, Inc. v. Eastman Kodak Co., 703 F.2d 534, 544-45 (9th Cir. 1983). In a competitive market, firms routinely innovate in the hope of appealing to consumers, sometimes in the process making their products incompatible with those of rivals; the imposition of liability when a monopolist does the same thing will inevitably deter a certain amount of innovation. This is all the more true in a market, such as this one, in which the product itself is rapidly changing. See Findings of Fact p 59. Judicial deference to product innovation, however, does not mean that a monopolist's product design decisions are per se lawful. See Foremost Pro Color, 703 F.2d at 545; see also Cal. Computer Prods., 613 F.2d at 739, 744; In re IBM Peripheral EDP Devices Antitrust Litig., 481 F. Supp. 965, 1007-08 (N.D. Cal. 1979)."
Note that these are also tying between sold products and given away products, not just given away products. Otherwise, open source linux distributions with large market share would have tying issues (and in fact, they've been unsuccessfully sued for illegal competition before)