The European Commission has made legally binding commitments offered by IBM corporation of making spare parts and technical information swiftly available, under commercially reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, to independent mainframe maintainers.

The antitrust measures concerning International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) have been announced by the Commission. The measures make the commitments offered by IBM legally binding, without concluding whether there is an infringement of EU competition rules. IBM commits to make spare parts and technical information swiftly available, under commercially reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, to independent mainframe maintainers.

The Commission had concerns that IBM may have imposed unreasonable conditions for supplying its competitors in the market of mainframe maintenance services in breach of EU antitrust rules prohibiting the abuse of a dominant market position. Mainframes are powerful computers used by large companies and public institutions to store and process critical business information. The Commission is satisfied that the commitments, revised in light of observations received in the course of a market test, are suitable to solve these competition concerns.

In July 2010 the Commission opened an investigation over concerns that IBM might be abusing a dominant position on the mainframe maintenance market by hindering the access of independent maintenance service providers to critical spare parts. The decision announced concludes an investigation on the initiative of the Commission over concerns that IBM might have been abusing a dominant position on the mainframe maintenance market. The Commission's decision is based on Article 9 of the Antitrust Regulation 1/2003.