The European Commission has ordered Microsoft to pay an extra €280.5 million fine for failing to
comply with its antitrust ruling in 2004. The US software firm also faces a new daily fine of €3 million
unless it provides technical data to rivals to enable them to design products that work with
Microsoft's own software.

EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes announced the new penalty yesterday, and said she
regretted that Microsoft had not stopped its illegal conduct.

"The European Commission cannot allow such illegal conduct to continue indefinitely," said Ms Kroes, who has repeatedly warned Microsoft to comply with the 2004 ruling or face tougher sanctions.
"This is the first time in the 49-year history of the EU that the commission has had to fine a company
for failure to comply with an antitrust decision. I hope it will be the last," she added.

Microsoft has already been fined €497 million by the commission as part of its landmark 2004
ruling that found Microsoft had broken the law by using its monopoly in the market for operating
system software to harm its rivals. The anti-trust ruling ordered Microsoft to give rivals more information on its operating system software to enable them to design products that can perform more effectively with Windows - Microsoft's operating system that runs on 95 per cent of the world's computers.

The commission has found that Microsoft has not provided this information. "Microsoft did not even come close to providing complete and accurate specifications," said Ms Kroes, who added that she "didn't buy" Microsoft's line that it did not know what was being asked of it by the commission in its
2004 decision.

Relations between the commission and Microsoft are extremely poor following the firm's legal
challenge against the 2004 antitrust ruling at the European Court of First Instance. The court
is due to rule later this year or early next year on Microsoft's challenge to the finding that it
acted illegally to undermine rival software firms.

The commission has also become increasingly frustrated with Microsoft's refusal to honour the 2004 ruling to offer technical data to rivals. The €280.5 million fine levied on Microsoft amounts to a daily fine
of €1.5 million since last December, the date when the  commission found that Microsoft was not complying with its ruling.

Ms Kroes said the commission had shown restraint in setting the level of the fine, seeking to do no
more than is necessary to induce Microsoft to comply with the commission's decision. She said
that with effect from July 31st the commission would raise the fines for non-compliance levied on
Microsoft to €3 million per day.

Microsoft criticised the fine yesterday and said it was making massive efforts to comply with
the ruling.