Microsoft to fight €899m Brussels fine

Lawyers for Microsoft embarked on a final tussle with the European Commission on May 24 in the battle over antitrust issues that have ensnared the software group for more than a decade.

Most of the issues between the US company and competition regulators in Brussels were settled at the end of 2009. However the company has continued to pursue an outstanding appeal in one of the European Union’s top courts over the right of the Commission to impose penalties during the lengthy legal struggle. The fine at issue is the €899m ($1.3bn) the Commission imposed on Microsoft for non-complying with the watchdog’s earlier decision that it had breached EU antitrust rules – for which it was fined €497m. The software company became the first company in the history of European Union competition policy to be fined for non-compliance – and the combined amount of the two fines remains the largest penalty the Commission has imposed. Microsoft, however, has argued that the Commission gave it insufficient guidance to allow it to rectify satisfactorily the situation and avoid the second penalty. Its lawyers were presenting the company’s arguments at the Luxembourg-based General Court – part of the European Court of Justice structure.