Tweet
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Commission fined Microsoft a record $1.3 billion Wednesday for defying sanctions imposed on the software giant in 2004 for antitrust violations, far exceeding the original penalty.
EU regulators said the company charged “unreasonable prices” until last October to software developers who wanted to make products compatible with the Windows desktop operating system.
(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
The fine is the largest ever for a single company and brings to just under $2.5 billion the amount the EU has demanded Microsoft pay in a long-running antitrust dispute.
The Commission, executive arm of the European Union, has now fined Microsoft more than any other firm for failing to comply with sanctions. It said no other company had ever ignored sanctions.
Microsoft immediately said the issues for which it was fined have been resolved and the company was making its products more open.
The fine comes less than a week after Microsoft said it would share more information about its products and technology in an effort to make it work better with rivals’ software and meet the demands of antitrust regulators in Europe.
But EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes remained skeptical and said Microsoft was under investigation in two additional cases.
“Talk is cheap,” Kroes said. “Flouting the rules is expensive.”
Microsoft’s actions have stifled innovation and affected millions of people around the world, Kroes said. She called the record 899 million euro fine “a reasonable response to a series of quite unreasonable actions.”
“We could have gone as high as 1.5 billion euros ($2.23 billion),” she said. “The maximum amount is higher than what we did at the end of the day.”
Microsoft fought hard against a March 2004 decision that led to a 497 million euro ($613 million) fine and an order that the software maker share interoperability information with rivals within 120 days. The company lost its appeal in that case in September.
Microsoft was fined $357 million in July 2006 for failing to obey that order.
The EU alleged that Microsoft withheld crucial interoperability information for desktop PC software — where it is the world’s leading supplier — in an effort squeeze into a new market and damage rivals.
The company delayed compliance for three years, the EU said, only making changes in October to the patent licenses for companies that need data to create software that works with Microsoft.
EU regulators said the company charged “unreasonable prices” until last October to software developers who wanted to make products compatible with the Windows desktop operating system.
(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
The fine is the largest ever for a single company and brings to just under $2.5 billion the amount the EU has demanded Microsoft pay in a long-running antitrust dispute.
The Commission, executive arm of the European Union, has now fined Microsoft more than any other firm for failing to comply with sanctions. It said no other company had ever ignored sanctions.
Microsoft immediately said the issues for which it was fined have been resolved and the company was making its products more open.
The fine comes less than a week after Microsoft said it would share more information about its products and technology in an effort to make it work better with rivals’ software and meet the demands of antitrust regulators in Europe.
But EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes remained skeptical and said Microsoft was under investigation in two additional cases.
“Talk is cheap,” Kroes said. “Flouting the rules is expensive.”
Microsoft’s actions have stifled innovation and affected millions of people around the world, Kroes said. She called the record 899 million euro fine “a reasonable response to a series of quite unreasonable actions.”
“We could have gone as high as 1.5 billion euros ($2.23 billion),” she said. “The maximum amount is higher than what we did at the end of the day.”
Microsoft fought hard against a March 2004 decision that led to a 497 million euro ($613 million) fine and an order that the software maker share interoperability information with rivals within 120 days. The company lost its appeal in that case in September.
Microsoft was fined $357 million in July 2006 for failing to obey that order.
The EU alleged that Microsoft withheld crucial interoperability information for desktop PC software — where it is the world’s leading supplier — in an effort squeeze into a new market and damage rivals.
The company delayed compliance for three years, the EU said, only making changes in October to the patent licenses for companies that need data to create software that works with Microsoft.
Comment