On 27 February 2008 the European Commission imposed a record €889 million penalty on Microsoft for failing to comply with the European Commission’s March 2004 abuse of dominance decision. The European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes stated “Microsoft was the first company in fifty years of EU competition policy that the Commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision”.
In March 2004, the European Commission fined Microsoft €497 million for abusing its dominant position under Article 82 EC Treaty by bundling Windows Media Player with Windows and by failing to supply interoperability information. The Court of First Instance upheld this decision in September 2007. Microsoft announced shortly after that it would not appeal the decision and that it would continue to work closely with the European Commission to ensure a competitive environment for information technology.
This latest fine is not the first penalty for Microsoft for non-compliance with the March 2004 Decision. In July 2006, Microsoft was fined €280.5 million. The 27 February 2008 fine picks up from where the July 2006 fine left off and covers the period from 21 June 2006 until 21 October 2007. The European Commission accepts that after that date Microsoft provided the required information and that the royalties charged for access to the interoperability information were in line with the March 2004 Decision.
Microsoft still faces potential action from the European Commission. Earlier this month, the European Commission launched two new anti-competition investigations against Microsoft into similar issues. The first is considering whether Microsoft has abused its dominance of the PC market by illegally tying a range of products, including Internet Explorer, to sales of PCs. The second relates to complaints of interoperability of further Microsoft software products, including Office and the so called .NET Framework, with rival products.
Please click here to see the European Commission’s press release on this decision.
