Microsoft put on the counter

The European Commission has decided to once again tighten requirements for the computer giant Microsoft . Not happy with the way the American company is complying with antitrust regulations , EU authorities intend to increase daily penalties from 2 million to 5 million euros. European Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd said yesterday that the American company fully deserves such sanctions , since over the past three years the largest software manufacturer has not met the competition requirements established by the European Commission. "This is the first time in the 50-year history of European competition law that we have seen such a confrontation from a company that refuses to comply with a competition ruling," Mr Todd said.

Microsoft has been paying a cumulative fine of €2 million per day since December 16, 2005. Now the total amount of penalties is approaching a billion euros. Angered by Microsoft's negligent attitude towards European legislation, the EU is determined and is unlikely to limit itself to verbal warnings. If Bill Gates' company continues to drag its feet, the amount of daily fines will most likely increase. “Just look at their relationship with other antitrust authorities in other jurisdictions. This is a company that absolutely does not want to put up with antitrust rules,” Mr. Todd said at a press conference on the possibility of introducing new sanctions.

In September, the European Commission warned that fines were not the only leverage against Microsoft and promised to ban the sale of the new Windows Vista operating system in EU member states. It is already on sale around the world (including in Russia), but should go on sale on the European market in 2007. Brussels insists that before this happens, built-in security features must be removed from the program. In October 2006, Microsoft filed a counter-complaint against the European Commission for unjustified harassment with the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

The history of the current conflict between the computer conglomerate and the European authorities is more than three years old. In 2004, Microsoft had to pay the first and largest fine in the history of the European Commission in the amount of 500 million euros. Then Microsoft was found guilty of abusing its dominant position in the operating systems market. The EU executive demanded that the company remove the Media Player from the Windows operating system package offered on the European market within 90 days, which it subsequently did. Another mandate required that parts of Windows' source code be open-sourced so that competitors could release compatible applications for the world's most popular operating system. It is this requirement that Microsoft is still only promising to fulfill.

Denis UVAROV