Companies that use patents as a threat to ban competitors' products from the market are engaged in "unacceptable" behavior, European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said Tuesday.

"Any company that holds these patents can effectively hold up the entire industry with the threat of banning the products of competitors from the market. This sort of hold-up is not acceptable," he said in a speech to the European parliament.

Almunia noted that the European Commission, the EU's executive, had received two new complaints against Motorola Mobility Inc. (MMI) over the use of patents this month.

"We will examine them very closely," he said.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) said last week it filed a competition complaint with the European Commission against Motorola and its soon-to-be owner Google Inc. (GOOG) in connection with Motorola's handling of patents it holds that form part of industry-wide standards for Internet connectivity.

Apple Inc. (APPL) has also recently filed a suit in California aimed at warding off any injunctions from Motorola Mobility on one of Apple's iPhones and last week made a similar complaint to the European Commission.

The commissioner also said that he wouldn't allow competition pressure slide in the telecoms industry.

He said the liberalization of that market "remains one of Europe's success stories," with access to the market and lower prices in the sector crucial to the region's economy.

"It would be paradoxical and sad if the technologies of the future were used to bring the industry back to a time when doors were locked for innovative new players," he said.

Almunia said he was monitoring the cooperation of large telecom firms as they develop new standards for regional networks.

-By Laurence Norman, Dow Jones Newswires; +32 (0)2 741 1481; laurence.norman@dowjones.com

(Sarah Sloat and Frances Robinson contributed to this article.)

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