EU may impose new fines against Microsoft

Brussels: The European Union has threatened to impose new fines against Microsoft Corp with fines as high as euro3 million (US$4 million) a day, saying the software company was still not offering a fair deal to rivals seeking to make Windows-compatible server products.

Microsoft said the EU Commission's demands were not reasonable. "It is hard to see how the Commission can argue that even patented innovation must be made available for free," the company said in a statement.

The EU complained that three years after a landmark antitrust ruling to open up the market, the U.S. software giant still refused to cooperate. Under a 2004 antitrust ruling by the European Union, Microsoft had to disclose complete and accurate interface documentation on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, allowing its competitors to interoperate with Windows PCs and servers. Under a so-called 'statement of objections,' the EU's executive Commission said there was 'no significant innovation'  in the requested information. It also rejected 1,500 pages of submissions by Microsoft over the past three months and said Microsoft's price proposals were unreasonable.

Microsoft has four weeks to reply to the Commission after which the EU could impose fines going as high as euro3 million (US$4 million) a day.

Microsoft is also challenging the EU's original 2004 antitrust order at the EU's Court of First Instance. The 2004 antitrust order found the company broke competition law for abuse of a dominant position and fined the software maker a record euro497 million (US$613 million).

To remedy Microsoft's antitrust abuse, the EU ordered the company to sell a copy of Windows without its media player software and told it to share communications code and information with rivals to help them develop server software that worked smoothly with Microsoft's ubiquitous Windows desktop operating system.