Microsoft must pay $1.36 billion to the European Union for flouting competition rules.

The European Union fined Microsoft Corporation a record $1.36 billion (€899 million) on Wednesday for charging rivals too much for software information.

Wednesday’s penalty, which amounts to almost a third of Microsoft’s last quarterly profit, officially closes a nine-year antitrust battle with European regulators that has cost the company a total of $2.5 billion in fines.

In 2004, the European Union found that Microsoft had abused its dominance in personal computer operating systems to limit competition. It ordered the company to make technical information available to firms so their software would work with Windows and other Microsoft products.

European regulators levied Wednesday’s fine after determining that, for three years after the ruling, Microsoft had charged “unreasonable prices” for that information.
Neelie Kroes, EU commissioner for competition policy, sharply criticised Microsoft for not living up to its promises to regulators.

“Talk is cheap. Flouting the rules is expensive,” she said at a news conference in Brussels. “We don’t want talk and promises. We want compliance.”

Kroes continued: “Microsoft’s behaviour did not just harm a few individuals or a handful of big companies. Directly and indirectly this had negative effects on millions of offices in companies and governments around the world.

 “Competition policy is about making sure that people and companies have the right to choose. And when people and companies are given that right to choose, then markets deliver so much more – this is why I am passionate about making markets work better.

“Today’s decision sends a strong signal that consumers can expect choice in Europe, and can expect the European Commission to fight for their right to choose.”
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.

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