Microsoft heading for EU fines

EU competition regulators are set to rule against software giant Microsoft next month, paving the way for fines of up to €2m a day.

According to FT Europe, the European commission will decide at its July 12 meeting that Microsoft has breached the terms of its 2004 antitrust decision by failing to provide important information on interoperability.

Competition commissioner Neelie Kroes is expected to inform national competition regulators of the decision next week, although the commission stressed that no formal ruling has as yet been made.

In March 2004 the commission fined Microsoft a record €497m for abusing its dominant market position and ordered it to make information available to its rivals about its Windows operating system that would allow greater interoperability between servers.

Microsoft claims that it has done all that the commission asked, but the independent trustee appointed to assess the company’s compliance has said that the information provided was next to useless.

The company has offered its rivals access to its operating code, under licence, a move that it claims goes further than the commission’s demands. 

As a reult, any further fines would be “unjustified and unnecessary”, the company said in a statement.

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