EU warns Microsoft of new fines

The European Commission warned Microsoft today it faced further fines in its long-running antitrust battle with Brussels, this…

The European Commission warned Microsoft today it faced further fines in its long-running antitrust battle with Brussels, this time for seeking unreasonable prices from software makers for vital data.

Strongly criticising the US software giant, the European Union executive said the latest formal charges could lead to new daily penalties on top of fines already levied.

"In the 50 years of European antitrust policy, it's the first time we've been confronted with a company that has failed to comply with an antitrust decision," the Commission's competition spokesman Jonathan Todd said.

He said the continuing dispute, almost three years after the Commission ruled that Microsoft had abused the dominant market position of its ubiquitous Windows operating system, was solely due to the company's behaviour.

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"You have to look at their attitude faced with other antitrust authorities in other jurisdictions. This is a company that apparently does not like to have to conform with antitrust decisions," Todd told a news conference.

Microsoft said the European Commission was trying "to regulate the pricing of our intellectual property on a global basis and not just within the EU".

Microsoft said its prices were at least 30 per cent below the market rate for comparable technology, while the Commission said competitive technology was nominally priced or free.

The Commission's Todd said: "No companies have signed up for Microsoft because it is too expensive."

The Commission imposed a record €497 million fine on Microsoft and ordered it to change its business practices in April 2004, ruling the company had failed to give information to other makers of small-business servers needed to compete with Microsoft's own products.

Microsoft has said it would be charging for interoperability information because it was based on its own innovative work and protected by patents, but the Commission said the information was either not new or available elsewhere royalty-free.