EC plans more fines for Microsoft

Competition commissioner Neelie Kroes has confirmed that she will be talking to Vole's rivals to see if Microsoft had been behaving itself lately and will make a decision on any fines next month.

There has been simmering dissatisfaction with the way Vole has been implementing its anti-trust clean-up operation.

One of the EU demands was that Microsoft ship a version of Vindas without a media player. However, Brussels is miffed that Vole wants to call it a Reduced Media Edition, saying Microsoft should "refrain from using terms that would have the effect of making the unbundled version less attractive."

Vole's rivals are also concerned about the terms offered by Microsoft for sharing vital information needed to develop products that can work smoothly with the Windows platform.