As of midnight tonight, Microsoft faces more EU fines over competition issues, to the tune of 5 per cent of their global daily turnover, or about £2.8m daily.
In March 2004, after a five-year investigation, the EU competition commission fined Microsoft €497m—enough to make even a wealthy company sit up and take notice. The EU also ordered the software company to sell a version of Windows without their media player, as well as to share source code with rival developers, so they can make software that works properly with Microsoft’s operating systems.
While the company claims to be trying to comply, some EU regulators believe the non-bundled Windows packages are not to the same standards as Windows packages that include the media player. Over the weekend, reps from both sides met to discuss how much Microsoft is planning to charge other companies to access their source code.
The EU commission expects it will take until the end of July to decide if Microsoft has fully complied. In order to impose the fine, the commission would then have to start a formal process that would eventually require agreement by all 25 member-countries of the EU, and is open to appeal.