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EU to fine Microsoft 200 m-300 m euros

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

By David Lawsky and Sabina Zawadzki






BRUSSELS - The European Commission is set to fine Microsoft between 200 million
and 300 million euros on Wednesday as punishment for failing to carry out

antitrust sanctions, sources familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.






The two sources said that, by the end of this month, the software giant must
meet European Commission standards for complying with the sanctions - imposed

more than two years ago - or face a ratcheting up of future fines.






The current fine was calculated by setting a daily fine and multiplying by the
number of days between Dec. 16, 2005 and a date in June, the sources said.






The Commission could have fined Microsoft up to 2 million euros ($2.55 million)
daily. It declined to comment on the fine.






Microsoft will face fines of up to 3 million euros daily if it fails to comply
with the Commission's orders by July 31, the sources said.






Microsoft has pledged to deliver documents by July 18 to be in compliance.





An advisory group from the 25-member European Union endorsed the size of the
fine at a meeting on Monday, other sources said.






That paved the way for the first such punishment ever imposed by the Commission
on a company for non-compliance with an antitrust decision. No other company has

defied Commission sanctions in the same way, EU officials say.






In 2004, the Commission ruled Microsoft squeezed out rivals by withholding
information that would help them make server software that could run as smoothly

on Microsoft's ubiquitous Windows operating system as its own server software

does.






The Commission, Europe's top antitrust authority, ordered Microsoft to provide
that information.






Microsoft tried but failed to get the fine suspended by a judge. Microsoft says
it has done everything the Commission has asked.






But under the Commission's decision, the Commission is the sole judge of whether
Microsoft has complied.

























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