You're merging two different events into one.
I'm talking about the rise of IE. When it was an outright better browser. You're talking about events that happened when it was at its peak popularity, but was an outright outdated browser, coincidentally just when Chrome was ramping up.
Just like Firefox is now over Chrome.
Except now, with Google doing things MS never even dreamed of, there isn't whisper of any investigation or sanctions from the EU.