EU Threatens New Sanctions on Microsoft

The European Union on Thursday threatened to fine Microsoft Corp. more than $2 million a day for failing to obey its 2004 antitrust ruling, accusing the company of intransigence in sharing information with competitors.

“I have given Microsoft every opportunity to comply with its obligations,” EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said. “However, I have been left with no alternative other than to proceed via the formal route to ensure Microsoft’s compliance.”

The threat of new sanctions against Microsoft aims to force it to provide more detailed information so that competitors’ products can be made more compatible with Microsoft’s Windows server operating system.

It follows an independent scientist’s scathing assessment of what Microsoft has thus far provided and has set off further bickering between the software company and regulators.

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s top lawyer, accused the European Commission of threatening the fine before it had even reviewed highly technical documentation that he said Microsoft sent to European officials Wednesday.

“We don’t understand how they can reach these conclusions, because they haven’t read or reviewed these documents,” Smith said.

He also expressed frustration with the EU’s repeated requests for information.

“Every time we do absolutely everything we’ve been asked to do, we’re told that there’s something else we need to do,” he said.

EU spokesman Jonathan Todd said the EU had not yet received the documents that Microsoft said it had sent.

But he expressed little hope that the documents would address some of the EU’s major concerns. The last Microsoft letter did little more than promise that the company would correct Web links and other formatting errors, Todd said.