EU fines Microsoft record $1.3 billion

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The European Union fined Microsoft Corp. a record $1.3 billion on Wednesday for charging rivals too much for software information.

EU regulators said the company charged "unreasonable prices" until last October to software developers who wanted to make products compatible with the Windows desktop operating system.

Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) immediately said that these fines were about past issues that have been resolved and the company was now working under new principles to make its products more open.

The fine is the largest ever for a single company and the first time the EU has penalized a business for failing to obey an antitrust order.

The penalty far outweighs a a March 2004 decision that fined Microsoft $613 million and ordered it to share communications information with rivals within 120 days, taking an appeal to an EU court that it lost last September.

The EU alleged that Microsoft withheld crucial interoperability information for desktop PC software - where it is the world's leading supplier - to squeeze into a new market and damage rivals that make programs for workgroup servers that help office computers connect to each other and to printers and faxes.

The company delayed complying with the EU order for three years, the EU said, only making changes on Oct. 22 to the patent licenses it charges companies that need data to help them make software that works with Microsoft. [ full story ]

-----------

So is this going to affect the already high cost of MS software we all purchase to do business?

I don't blame a monopoly for wanting to stay in power but owning almost 4% of someones product to make it compatible with your platform seems crude.

Seems the EU has the upper hand in looking out for small business and innovation while the U.S. supports a predatory, and defeating, practice of keeping the little guy down.