EU court poised for Microsoft antitrust fine ruling
Summary: Microsoft will hear in a month's time whether the European Commission fined the company excessively for failing to comply with an earlier antitrust fine.
Europe's second-highest court will rule in just over a month's time on whether a fine imposed by the European antitrust regulators on Microsoft was fair.
The European General Court, based in Luxembourg, will rule on the decision on June 27 on a case where Microsoft was fined €899 million ($1.1bn) in 2008.
Microsoft's penalty was a record fine for the time, only to be outdone by Intel who was fined €1.06 billion ($1.4bn) shortly afterward, who coincidentally is going through the same motions almost word for word.
The case goes back to 2004 when Microsoft charged unreasonable prices for access to "interface documents for work group servers".
Microsoft called the fine "excessive" after it was fined due to a failure to comply with the original March 2004 antitrust decision. It was originally fined $1.2 billion for failing to provide its competitors access to its compatibility protocols at a reasonable rate.
It was the first time in 50 years of European competition policy that the Commission had to impose a fine for a company for failing to comply with an antitrust decision.
Microsoft slammed the decision to impose a second, larger fine for failing to pay the original fine. It argued that it wasn't given enough time to appeal, and that it still didn't know how much a reasonable rate it was expected to charge in the first place.
It was though Microsoft was given a punishment without being told exactly how to prevent such actions in the future.
The Redmond-based software giant turned heads this month when it said it would only allow Internet Explorer 10 in the desktop mode of its tablet version of Windows 8, named Windows RT. Both Mozilla and Google publicly accused Microsoft of abusing its dominant position in the browser market, with what could spin into another European antitrust investigation.
EU regulators said it would "keep an eye" on Microsoft, though the Commission isn't entirely sure whether it breaks an existing settlement agreement or not.
U.S. regulators will also decide on whether to probe Microsoft in a full antitrust investigation in the coming weeks.
Image source: Flickr.
Related:
- EU slaps Microsoft with $1.35 billion fine
- Windows RT may breach Microsoft-EU 'browser ballot' deal
- Mozilla and Google accuse Microsoft of unfair browser competition
- Intel to appeal EU antitrust fine
- Mary Jo Foley: European Commission vs. Microsoft: Who is being unreasonable?
- Ed Bott: With Windows 8, Microsoft can't forget past antitrust issues
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Talkback
the fine should be increased
Courts need a reason other than your anti-Microsoft bias
Stupid analogy - You really should go back to fanboy school
;)
oh look - todd's bottom voted me down 4 times
lol... :D
So how did fanboy school work out for ya?
Too many ignorant M$ Fanbois here ....
Sorry
Why?
Because it gets on your fanboy nerves
EU court poised for Microsoft antitrust fine ruling
I know no such thing
Good
Good? Did you read the article or just the headline?
But thanks for posting this. It really puts the rest of your posts in context. You clearly don't think rationally when it comes to Microsoft. Good to know, we will all remember this the next time you post.
Learning to read, might help you...
"Microsoft slammed the decision to impose a second, larger fine for failing to pay the original fine. It argued that it wasn't given enough time to appeal, and that it still didn't know how much a reasonable rate it was expected to charge in the first place."
By "enough time to appeal", Microsoft is really saying they want 500 years to pay it. We all know Microsoft has no intention on paying the fines, because they see noting wrong with "kneecapping the competition"
Oh Jack, once again, thank you so much for posting
The second, larger fine they are "whining" about was issued and paid in 2008, this isn't a new fine. Microsoft is trying to get a refund on the second fine it paid in 2008. The EU court is deciding whether MS should get that refund, not whether it should fine MS more.
But please, please, please, keep posting. You do us so many favors when you do.
Again Trollboy...
If I push a ford Focus off the edge of a cliff, it's going to fall and be damaged. I will also have to pay the car's owner for said damage. If I fail to pay for the damages, I may have to go before a judge and incur more monetary incentives to not repeat the undesired behavior. Is that too hard for you to comprehend?
The information is right there, in front of you. Microsoft has said they do not believe they should be finned for kneecapping the competition, and that it's their OS, so their software should work better. Kind of like the Mozilla complaint, Microsoft is artificially tilting the playing field, which is the only way they can win!
And just a FYI: being in your Mid 40s, and still living in your mommy's house is a bad thing.
Please Jack, promise us you'll never change?
Keep wiping todd's bottom, Jack
lol... :D
I was mostly paying attention to this
Which is a lot more than what the US has been doing the past 10 years.
Zack
Ergo, it's a little shady of you to come to it in such a manner as it could be concluded as a fact rather than an a mere assertion.
However, some new court, same pap from Microsoft. Who knows, they may be able to get some cash back. Mind you, to me at least it'd be far more amusing if they thought Microsoft weren't fined enough.