EU warns Microsoft of possible further fines
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The European Commission turned up the  pressure on Microsoft  on Thursday, warning the U.S.  software giant of new fines and accusing it of serial defiance  of an antitrust ruling made nearly three years ago.
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Microsoft is expected to hear next month whether antitrust penalties imposed by the European Commission will become effective immediately, or whether they will be suspended for possibly four to five years.
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The European Union threatened Microsoft Corp. on Thursday with fines as high as $4 million a day, claiming the software company was still not offering a fair deal to rivals
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BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Under threat of new multimillion fines, Microsoft Corp. said Thursday that it had signed up its first licensee for a scheme EU regulators told it to set up three years ago to share code that helps servers work with the Windows operating platform.
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The European Union Court of First Instance has upheld the US$665.4 million fine on Microsoft imposed by the executive European Commission in March and will now force the company to offer European computer makers a version of the Windows operating system
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(InfoWorld) - MicrosoftÂ has filed an appeal against the latest antitrust fine imposed on it by the European Commission, a Microsoft spokesman said on Tuesday. The Commission, Europe's top competition authority,Â fined the software maker â¬280.5 millionÂ in July failing to comply with its 2004 antitrust ruling. "Microsoft filed the appeal yesterday, as it said it would back in July," said Tom Brookes, Microsoft's spokesman in Brussels. The Court of First Instance in Luxembourg is already considering Microsoft's appeal of the 2004 ruling, which ordered it to sell a version of Windows in Europe without its media player software, release some of its server protocols to competitors, and pay a fine of almost â¬500 million. The court is likely to rule on the first appeal towards the end of this year or in the first half of next year. A conclusion to the latest legal challenge is likely to be years away. Microsoft has claimed from the beginning that it is committed to honoring the Commission's 2004 antitrust ruling. It paid the fine promptly and has offered a second version of Windows XP without Windows Media Player, although sales of that version have been almost nonexistent. The Commission has been more concerned about what it sees as Microsoft's failure to submit the required protocol information. In July its patience ran out. Announcing the â¬280.5 million fine, the European Commissioner in charge of competition, Neelie Kroes, said the documentation the company had submitted "fell significantly short of what was required". MicrosoftÂ submitted new informationÂ to the Commission shortly after that, which the Commission is still studying. Kroes has said she is confident that Microsoft's "foot-dragging" is over. "They are making constructive efforts now," she said, adding: "It's a shame they didn't do so two years ago." To deter any further deliberate delays in complying with the 2004 ruling, the Commission has increased the future fines for failing to comply. The â¬280.5 million fine was calculated using a daily fine of â¬1.5 million from Dec. 16 last year to June 20, the day on which Microsoft made a more concerted effort to comply, according to the Commission. Meanwhile, European antitrust officials have beenÂ busy studying Windows Vista, the next version of Microsoft's operating system due to go on sale later this year and early next. They are concerned that some new features in Vista may break the same antitrust laws that formed the backbone of the 2004 ruling. Microsoft has warned that Vista's launch could be delayed in Europe due to problems with European regulators.
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Computer giant Microsoft has lost its legal appeal to delay a fine and anti-competitive penalties set by the European Commission.
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: Microsoft Corp. today said that small companies and their customers would suffer most if it is forced to remove its digital media software from Windows, while the European Union accused
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Microsoft warned a European appeals court that software developers and consumers would face dire consequences should it be penalized.
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EU criticizes Microsoft interoperability efforts in response to 2004 antitrust ruling, more fines possible.
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More of the same Microsoft has warned European PC users face an even longer wait for Windows Vista if EU antitrust regulators mandate further changes for the delayed operating system.â¦
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A European Union judge is due to decide this week if antitrust sanctions imposed on Microsoft  should be suspended -- a move the software giant hopes would lead to new settlement talks.
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The European Commission ruled in March that Microsoft had indulged in anti-competitive behaviour with Windows and set a fine of Â£333mn plus orders to produce a version of Windows without the Media Player within 90 days or face further action.
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Microsoft has lost its appeal against a record 497m euro fine imposed by the European Commission in a long-running competition dispute. A probe concluded in 2004 that Microsoft was guilty of freezing out rivals in server software and products such as media players.
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Software giant Microsoft  has  filed an appeal against a 280.5 million euro ($356.4 million)  fine the European Commission imposed in July, holding it defied  a 2004 antitrust ruling.
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Microsoft  raised the  possibility on Thursday that it might delay the introduction of  its new Vista Windows operating system in Europe, saying it  depended on the European Commission's antitrust requirements.
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Microsoft is looking for additional European-based firms to file challenges against the European Union&#39;s US$600 million ruling against the software giant.