Microsoft Pressed on EU Antitrust Charge
The European Commission told Microsoft Corp. on Friday that it was “still not in compliance” with a 2004 antitrust ruling that ordered it to share information with rivals to help make their software work with Microsoft servers.
The EU has already threatened the company with 2 million euros ($2.4 million) in daily fines, backdated to Dec. 15, and said it would make its final decision after a hearing to allow Microsoft to plead its case this month.
“The commission takes the preliminary view that this information continues to be incomplete and inaccurate,” the regulators said in a statement, basing their view on two reports from independent experts who looked at the latest version Microsoft had submitted.
Microsoft said the fact that the commission looked at the evidence after it had filed charges in December indicated that the charges were “fundamentally flawed and should be withdrawn.”
“Microsoft has submitted, in its response to the commission’s statement of objections, a large volume of expert testimony that finds in the clearest terms that Microsoft’s documentation reaches or exceeds every industry standard for the documentation of such technologies,” it said.
“That documentation, coupled with free technical support and source code access for licensees, meets and surpasses the requirements of the commission’s 2004 decision.”
The man appointed to monitor Microsoft’s compliance with the ruling -- computer science professor Neil Barrett -- found that although the documentation had improved slightly, “nothing substantial was added.”
Another report, from information technology consultancy Taeus Europe Ltd., was also critical, describing parts of the Microsoft documentation as “entirely inadequate,” “devoted to obsolete functionality” and “self-contradictory.”
Microsoft said Friday that the EU was still failing to address its main criticism, that the regulator was acting both as prosecutor and as independent judge of how much access the company should have to documents connected to the case.
