European Union antitrust authorities plan to recommend that Microsoft pay as much as ?2 million for every day that it failed to disclose information about Windows to its competitors, potentially adding up to more than ?250 million for breaching the EU’s antitrust order, according to people with direct knowledge of the decision.
Under a ruling made in March 2004, Microsoft was required to provide information to its rivals on the inner workings of its operating system, Windows. People close to the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Monday that the draft decision to seek the fines signaled that EU commissioners had lost patience with Microsoft.

Under a ruling made in March 2004, Microsoft was required to provide information to its rivals on the inner workings of its operating system, Windows. People close to the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Monday that the draft decision to seek the fines signaled that EU commissioners had lost patience with Microsoft.
The EU’s advisory committee, which is made up of the commission and representatives from the 25 member countries’ antitrust authorities, will meet Monday to discuss the draft decision and again July 10 to decide on the final fine. The commission has said that the penalty would be retroactive to Dec. 15, when the competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, first threatened Microsoft with daily penalties.
A daily fine of ?2 million, or $2.5 million, would be the biggest such fine ever levied by the commission and would total about ?386 million for every day from Dec. 15 through Monday, or about ?275 million excluding weekends. The final fine thus seems likely to come to more than half of the original ?497.2 million antitrust fine that Microsoft was ordered to pay in March 2004.

more from [url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/27/yourmoney/msft.php]International Herald Tribune[/url]

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Filed under: m$ - @ June 28, 2006 9:41 pm