European regulators on Wednesday fined Microsoft a record $1.4bn (€899m) for failure to comply with demands to end allegedly anti-competitive business practices.
The fine comes days after the world’s biggest software group announced it would open parts of its software to rival companies in an attempt to assuage competition authorities.
But that move received a lukewarm reception in Brussels, where regulators have expressed scepticism about Microsoft’s promise to make its Windows operating system and other big-selling software more open and transparent.
Neelie Kroes, the European Union’s competition commissioner, said she hoped the fine would close “a dark chapter” in a history of non-compliance after a 2004 ruling found Microsoft guilty of abusing its dominant position in the market for PC operating systems. Microsoft said it was reviewing the decision, leaving the door open to an eventual challenge.
“The Commission announced in October 2007 that Microsoft was in full compliance with the 2004 decision, so these fines are about past issues that have been resolved,” the software group said in a statement.
The penalty marked the first time the EU has fined a company for failure to comply with an antitrust decision, Ms Kroes said.
“The Commission has stuck to its guns,” said John Pheasant, partner at Hogan & Hartson, an international law firm. “It also appears that the [European] Commission has not been swayed or deflected by the recent announcements by Microsoft.”
The fine stemmed from a 2004 ruling that required Microsoft to disclose “complete and accurate” technical information that would allow rivals to develop products that would work with Windows.
The Commission required Microsoft to offer such information on “reasonable terms,” but subsequently complained that the royalty rates demanded by Microsoft over the next three years amounted to “unreasonable pricing”. Microsoft fought the decision for several years but dropped its appeal after a top EU court ruled in favour of regulators last September.
The antitrust authority said it would also look at whether the US company had illegally linked its Internet Explorer system to its dominant Windows operating system. Wednesday’s fine relates to the period of non-compliance between June 2006 and October 2007. The earlier period was covered by a previously announced €280m penalty.
