The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has issued Xerox with a formal notice that it suspects infringement of the Competition Act 1998, following a complaint from Technologic LSI (Europe).

Tony Lynch, Technologic LSI (Europe) managing director, said: "Since 1996 Technologic has operated a maintenance division maintaining high-speed Xerox printers and in that time we feel Xerox has done everything it can to stop us fairly competing.

"We believe Xerox is unfairly using its copyright on software as an inhibitor to competition, while offering different trade terms to its subsidiary Continua and ourselves."

An OFT spokesman said a formal notice had been sent to Xerox informing it that an investigation was underway.

But a Xerox spokesman said that although it was aware that an investigation was in its preliminary stages, Xerox UK had not been issued with a formal notice. Technologic has complained that Xerox has:

* Delayed/refused to supply goods and services, granting Continua favourable terms;

* Artificially sought to enforce licences for operating software to reinforce its market dominance;

* Created a separate element in its diagnostic software for customers who have not signed an agreement;

* Refused to grant Technologic a licence for diagnostic software on reasonable terms.

The Xerox spokesman said the company had always invoked its right to charge for diagnostic software.

The news comes after a seven-month OFT probe following Continuas complaint that Oc had "abused a dominant position in the high-speed printer market" (PrintWeek, 19 October). The OFT found "no grounds to suspect infringement".

Story by Andy Scott