Microsoft has said it would contest what it called an unjustified European Commission decision to impose backdated daily fines if it fails to comply with European Union antitrust sanctions.
Earlier today, the European Commission said that Microsoft would have to pay daily fines backdated to December 15 if it failed to come into compliance with European Union antitrust sanctions within five weeks.
The Commission said it may fine the company up to €2 million a day unless it complies with an order to provide interface information to allow rivals' group servers to work with the company's ubiquitous Windows operating system.
The US software giant said it had obeyed the Commission's landmark March 2004 decision ordering it to change its business practices but the EU executive kept moving the goalposts.
It complained that what it called a new Commission demand to disclose source code to rival server makers "can open the door to the production of clones of parts of the Windows operating system". Microsoft's general counsel Brad Smith said the company was fully committed to comply with the EU decision but added in a statement: "We will contest today's statement to the full extent permitted under EU law, including a full oral hearing on these issues."
Commission Competition spokesman Jonathan Todd told a news conference the US software giant had until January 25th to reply to the EU executive's statement of objections and must comply fully with the Commission's landmark March 2004 antitrust decision "not with their own interpretation of that decision".
Asked whether the Commission would stop the clock on imposing fines if Microsoft availed itself of its right to request an oral hearing, he repeated that five weeks from December 21st was the deadline.
EU member states and interested parties such as rival companies or business associations would have a right to attend any hearing on the issue.