EU hits Microsoft for $1.3 billion
p2pnet news | Politics:- Microsoft has been hit with a record $1.3 billion fine for failing to obey an antitrust order.
European Union regulators said the company charged, "unreasonable prices" to software developers who’d wanted to make products compatible with Windows, says Associated Press.
"Microsoft immediately said that these fines were about past issues that have been resolved and the company was now working under new principles to make its products more open," according to a story , which goes on:
"The penalty far outweighs a March 2004 decision that fined Microsoft $613 million and ordered it to share communications information with rivals within 120 days, taking an appeal to an EU court that it lost last September.
"The EU alleged that Microsoft withheld crucial interoperability information for desktop PC software - where it is the world’s leading supplier - to squeeze into a new market and damage rivals that make programs for workgroup servers that help office computers connect to each other and to printers and faxes."
Microsoft stalled for three years, the EU said, "only making changes on Oct. 22 to the patent licenses it charges companies that need data to help them make software that works with Microsoft.
"The EU complained last March that these rates were unfair," says AP, adding:
"Under threat of fines, Microsoft two months later reduced the patent rate to 0.7 percent and the information license to 0.5 percent - but only in Europe, leaving the worldwide rates unchanged."
Also See:
Associated Press - EU Fines Microsoft Record $1.3 Billion, February 27, 2008
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