The European commission regulators on Wednesday penalized the Microsoft Corporation with a fine of Euro 899 ($1.35billion) for failing to comply displayed with a 2004 antitrust order, a European official said.
It is the largest fine ever imposed against a single company by the European Union.
Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of EU competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision. Microsoft has tried to allay European antitrust concerns, announcing last displayed week that it will help competitors’ software work better with some products, such as MS Office.
It sought to limit potential EU fines by agreeing in October to make network data available to open –source software developers so their server software can connect to the Windows operating system.
EU imposed the fine because Microsoft failed to charge reasonable royalty fees for patent licenses on operating system software.
A European court upheld the commission’s ruling against Microsoft in September, meaning the company was not in compliance for three years.
Last month, EU regulators opened fresh investigations into whether Microsoft is using its dominance in word processing and spreadsheets to thwart displayed rivals and whether the company illegally tied an internet browser to its Windows operating system.
Wednesday fine is not related to the new probes.
No comments:
Post a Comment