|
Microsoft's feud with the European Union became even more bitter today when regulators hit the firm with another $1.2 billion in fines. This time the penalty was for breaching a 2004 ruling that banned the firm from charging "unreasonable" prices for rivals to access software information they needed to produce Windows-compatible programs. Microsoft had been charging 3.87% royalties for all licensed Windows products, and an extra 2.98% to provide the necessary information. Microsoft have now reduced these rates in Europe but maintains them elsewhere.
"Microsoft is the first company in 50 years of EU competition policy that the Commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision", said EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. She was sceptical about the company's claims that their anti-competitive days were behind them, saying "Talk is cheap. Flouting the rules is expensive." (Source: latimes.com) The fine won't come as a shock to Microsoft. It had been challenging the 2004 ruling right up until last year when it lost a court case on the issue. This week's fine covers the period from June 2006 to October 2007; Microsoft has already been fined for ignoring the rules before this time. Legal experts said the new fine was evidence that the EU wanted to make it clear its rulings had to be respected. "The Commission has stuck to its guns and, slowly but surely, completed its procedures to be able today to impose further, potentially very significant, penalties -- and, in theory, the story does not end there. Microsoft is under a continuing duty to comply," chimed an analyst. (Source: guardian.co.uk) To date, the EU has fined Microsoft a total of $2.4 billion for various competition offenses, equivalent to 5% of the company's annual income. Though Microsoft has just announced plans to make its software secrets more available, the EU aren't off their case just yet. They are still investigating claims that the company unfairly promotes Internet Explorer by including it free of charge with all copies of Windows.
-- Related newsletter articles:
2008/01/15 Microsoft Faces (Another) Euro-probe (microsoft)
2008/02/05 Microsoft Yoohoo for Yahoo! (microsoft)
2008/03/04 Vista Price Slashed (microsoft)
2007/12/19 Microsoft Updates Hinder More than Help (microsoft)
2008/01/11 Microsoft Mulls Future of HD (microsoft)
2008/02/15 Microsoft Gets New Sidekick (microsoft)
2008/01/10 No Wonder Warner Went Blu (competition)
2008/01/17 Microsoft Taking Steady Steps with Zune (microsoft)
2008/02/22 Microsoft Gives Free Software to IT Students (microsoft)
2008/02/26 First Vista Update Not Going Well (microsoft)
2008/02/08 Microsoft Unveils Smarter Web Ads (microsoft)
2007/12/18 Microsoft Soaks Up CNBC.com (microsoft)
2008/02/28 Microsoft Revives Hotmail After Catastropic Outage (microsoft)
-- Recent articles (from all channels): 2008/05/13 Today in History: for Tuesday, May 13, 2008
2008/05/13 [ShellX 20080513]: 'Drive Spacio', and 'Youtube Batch Downloader'
2008/05/13 Congressman Calls For Second Life Ban In Schools
2008/05/13 Trying to Exit MS Excel 2007
2008/05/13 Problems Reported With Windows XP SP3
2008/05/12 [ShellX 20080512]: 'Remote Manager', and 'Cyber Bandwidth ...
2008/05/12 Video Gaming Trade Group Struggling
2008/05/12 T-Mobile Finally Joins 3G Phone Race
2008/05/12 Apple Slammed by Environment Watchdog
2008/05/09 [ShellX 20080509]: 'Advanced Run', and 'Diver Windows Manager'
2008/05/09 Texas Refuses Facebook Friend Request
2008/05/09 Photo-Enforcement Technology Replaces Officers On Patrol
2008/05/09 Cuban Government Says 'Ok Computer'
2008/05/09 Excel Can E-Mail Your Weekly Reports For You!
2008/05/08 [ShellX 20080508]: 'Shell Enhancer', and 'Lansweeper'
2008/05/08 Xobni: MS Outlook Social Networking Technology for your Inbox
2008/05/08 Music Companies Jump on GTA IV Bandwagon
2008/05/08 Fascinating: Memristor to replace Binary
2008/05/08 Adobe Hopes To Make Flash Master Of The (Mobile) Universe
2008/05/08 Spiffy Envelopes and Labels in MS Word
2008/05/07 [ShellX 20080507]: 'Winbin2iso', and 'Loop Typer'
2008/05/07 Yahoo Adds Security Warnings To Search Results
2008/05/07 Apple to Lose Money on iTunes Movie Releases
2008/05/07 Amazon.com takes New York Tax to Court
2008/05/07 Need Glasses for the Slide Sorter View in MS PowerPoint?
2008/05/07 After Winning The DVD Format War, Blu-Ray Sales Tank
2008/05/06 [ShellX 20080506]: 'Visual Basic 6.0 Portable', and 'Double-...
2008/05/06 Yahoo Outsources to Jajah
2008/05/06 New HP Circuit Could Change Technology Forever
2008/05/06 Movie Downloads To Match DVD Release Dates
2008/05/06 Microsoft Ends Yahoo Bid
|
