Commission Fines Microsoft 899 m Euros

Feb 27, 2008

The European Commission has imposed a fine of 899 m Euros on Microsoft, stating that the company had demanded unreasonable prices for interface documentation for it Workgroup servers.

Commenting on the decision, Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said that Microsoft had been the first company to ignore sanctions in 50 years of EU competition policy. The current fine is a consequence of a ruling made in March 2004 which ordered Microsoft to provide interface documentation to competitors on reasonable terms.

The Commission has also published a statement on Microsoft's latest announcement of freely available documentation in which it criticizes Microsoft for having made at least four similar promises in the past without keeping them.

The Commission has published documents related to the anti-competitive behavior claim against Microsoft on its own website.

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