Microsoft facing record €498m EU fine
Microsoft accused the EU today of going too far in seeking a record fine of about €498m against it for alleged antitrust abuses, saying it was being penalised for behaviour permitted in the United States.
The Seattle based software giant’s chief European lawyer, Horacio Gutierrez, said the level appeared to have been doubled from what it would have been under the European Commission’s own guidelines to account for the company’s global operations.
Microsoft does about 30% of its business in Europe.
“We believe it’s unprecedented and inappropriate for the Commission to impose a fine on a company’s US operations when those operations are already regulated by the US government,” Gutierrez said in Brussels. “The conduct at issue has been permitted by both the US Department of Justice and a US court.”
The EC is to issue its ruling against Microsoft, including the fine, tomorrow.
Sources familiar with the five-year-old case say the EU ruling finds Microsoft abused its Windows monopoly, harming consumers and competitors in the markets for digital media and server software.
Microsoft was found guilty of similar monopolistic behaviour in the US antitrust case but settled with the Bush administration. A US appeals court is currently considering whether that landmark deal was adequate to restore competition.
Representatives from the 15 EU governments met yesterday to approve the level of the fine proposed by Competition Commissioner Mario Monti. A source familiar with the case, said it was around €498m.
That would be a record for the EU in an antitrust case but far below the maximum of around €2.8bn that could be imposed in Microsoft’s case.
