Australia believes OOXML endorsement may be in breach of the Trade Practices Act

The Open Source Industry of Australia (OSIA) has formally contacted Standards Australia, requesting that Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) format not be endorsed by the body as an ISO standard.

Opposition to the potential endorsement was announced on July 31, and is attributed to several factors.

"Quite apart from the technical problems with OOXML, the main problem from OSIA's point of view is a substantive one - the 'standard' is designed so that it can only be implemented by a single vendor", said Brendan Scott, Director of Open Source Industry Australia. "So, while in theory a third party could create an independent implementation, in practice it is very unlikely", he said.