EUROPE'S ANTITRUST regulators fined Microsoft an additional $1.3 billion Wednesday for having failed to comply with the remedies imposed by their 2004 decision that the company had abused its domination of the PC software market.

The additional fine is the largest ever levied on any single company by the European Commission. Together with the fine imposed after the original judgment, this brings the total amount assessed against Microsoft in Europe to approximately $2.5 billion at current rates of exchange.

"Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of E.U. competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision," the European Union's competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement. "I hope that today's decision closes a dark chapter in Microsoft's record of noncompliance with the commission's March 2004 decision."

In March 2004 the commission ordered Microsoft to disclose interoperability information to competitors within 120 days. Its antitrust regulators later found that the company was charging excessively high royalties and patent fees that effectively foreclosed rival vendors from obtaining the information.

In a press conference, Ms. Kroes indicated that the fine was calculated on the basis that Microsoft was in breach of the commission's order for 488 days. She said that the amount represented 60 percent of the maximum $2.2 billion fine that the commission could have imposed.

She said, "It was never a pleasure" to impose a fine, but characterised the commission's action as a reasonable reaction to an "unreasonable" price charged by Microsoft for information crucial to competitors. "This has had a negative effect on millions of offices and companies and governments around the world," she said.

With regard to Microsoft's offer of more information, she said "we don't want talk, we want compliance. If you cheat the rules, you will be caught."

She added, “This should be a signal to the outside world, and in particular to Microsoft, that we stick to our line.”

Microsoft's troubles in the European Union aren't anywhere near over yet. It's still facing two antitrust investigations there, one addressing interoperability and a second related to the alleged "tying" of unrelated software products.

The Vole said it was "reviewing the commission's action." µ.

L'Inq
New York Times