FILE: European Commission set to fine Microsoft between 200 million and 300 million euros as punishment for failing to carry out antitrust sanctions

Record ID: 452009

  • Title: FILE: European Commission set to fine Microsoft between 200 million and 300 million euros as punishment for failing to carry out antitrust sanctions
  • Date: 12th July 2006
  • Summary: (BN02) BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (APRIL 19, 2006) (REUTERS) PAN OF MICROSOFT OFFICE SOFTWARE LINED UP ON THE SHELF VARIOUS OF MICROSOFT PRODUCTS IN SHOP (4 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 27th July 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: European Union,Economic News
  • Reuters ID: LVABAYIPREUE5TFRN515Z2HK3ZVD
  • Story Text: The European Commission is set to fine Microsoft between 200 million and 300 million euros on Wednesday (July 12) as punishment for failing to carry out antitrust sanctions, according to sources familiar with the situation.
    The sources said that, by the end of this month, the software giant must meet European Commission standards for complying with the sanctions -- imposed more than two years ago -- or face a ratcheting up of future fines.
    The current fine was calculated by setting a daily fine and multiplying by the number of days between Dec. 16, 2005 and a date in June, the sources said.
    The Commission could have fined Microsoft up to 2 million euros (2.55 million U.S. dollars) daily. It declined to comment on the fine.
    Microsoft will face fines of up to 3 million euros daily if it fails to comply with the Commission's orders by July 31, the sources said.
    Microsoft has pledged to deliver documents by July 18 to be in compliance.
    An advisory group from the 25-member European Union endorsed the size of the fine at a meeting on Monday (July 10), other sources said.
    That paved the way for the first such punishment ever imposed by the Commission on a company for non-compliance with an antitrust decision. No other company has defied Commission sanctions in the same way, EU officials say.
    In 2004, the Commission ruled Microsoft squeezed out rivals by withholding information that would help them make server software that could run as smoothly on Microsoft's ubiquitous Windows operating system as its own server software does.
    The Commission, Europe's top antitrust authority, ordered Microsoft to provide that information.
    Microsoft tried but failed to get the fine suspended by a judge. Microsoft says it has done everything the Commission has asked.
    But under the Commission's decision, the Commission is the sole judge of whether Microsoft has complied.
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