EU May Fine Microsoft Over 2004 Antitrust Case, People Say

EU May Fine Microsoft Over 2004 Antitrust Case, People Say

Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- European Union regulators may fine Microsoft Corp. for failing to comply with a 2004 antitrust ruling over its pricing of data licenses, three people familiar with the matter said.

The fine may be announced as soon as Feb. 27, said the people, who declined to be identified because the decision isn't public. Microsoft said in a Jan. 24 U.S. regulatory filing that the penalty may be as much as 1.5 billion euros ($2.2 billion).

Microsoft has tried to allay European antitrust concerns, announcing last week that it will make software work better with competing products. It also sought to limit potential EU fines, which already total 775 million euros in the 2004 case, by agreeing in October to make data available to open-source software developers.

Tom Brookes, a Microsoft spokesman in Brussels, and Jonathan Todd, a spokesman for the European Commission, the EU's antitrust regulator in Brussels, declined to comment.

On March 1, 2007, the EU threatened the company with millions of euros in daily fines backdated to December 2005 for charging ``unreasonable'' fees for network data needed for connecting servers. Microsoft had to make the information available under a March 2004 antitrust order in which it has already been fined a record 497 million euros.

Word Processing, Browsers

Last month, EU regulators opened investigations into whether Microsoft is using its dominance in word processing and spreadsheets to thwart rivals and whether the company illegally tied an Internet browser to its Windows operating system. The latest penalty isn't related to the two new probes against the Redmond, Washington-based company.

In July 2006, the EU also imposed a 280.5 million-euro penalty against the software company for failing to license information to rivals on how Windows communicates over a network. It was the first time that the EU had fined a company for failing to comply with an antitrust order.

The maximum 1.5 billion-euro fine cited in Microsoft's Jan. 24 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing is based on commission calculations for a possible penalty. The commission has the option of fining Microsoft a smaller amount.

BLOOMBERG