The European Commission today fined US giant Microsoft 561 million euros ($730 million) for failing to provide clients with a choice of Internet browser, as it had promised to do.
The Commission said this was the first time it was sanctioning a company for the failure to satisfy a previous EU complaint, making this a “very serious infringement.”
In 2009, the Commission required Microsoft to offer clients a choice of web browser through to 2014 after complaints it was restricting them to its own brand product. “legally binding commitments reached in antitrust decisions play a very important role in our enforcement policy because they allow for rapid solutions to competition problems,” EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a statement. “Such decisions require strict compliance. A failure to comply is a very serious infringement that must be sanctioned accordingly,” he added.