The European Commission said on March 6 that it imposed a 561 million euro fine on Microsoft for failing to offer Windows users the browser choice screen that allows users to pick a web browser, rather than use Microsofts Internet Explorer browser by default.
Microsoft was required to do so for a period of five years by the terms of its antitrust settlement with the Commission in 2009. However, the company failed to include the browser choice screen when it rolled out Windows 7 Service Pack 1.
As a consequence, an estimated 15.3 million Windows users in Europe were not shown the screen over a period of 14 months between May 2011 and July 2012 the EC said.
In 2009, we closed our investigation about a suspected abuse of dominant position by Microsoft due to the tying of Internet Explorer to Windows by accepting commitments offered by the company [...] A failure to comply is a very serious infringement that must be sanctioned accordingly, EC vice president in charge of competition policy, Joaquin Almunia, said in a statement.
Following an in-depth investigation and taking into account Microsoft´s reply to our objections, todays decision finds that Microsoft has indeed breached its legally binding commitments, he said.
Nevertheless, the US software manufacturer got off relatively easy, considering that the EU could have levied a fine of up to 10 per cent of the companys global turnover in the preceding business year, in which case the fine would have been close to $7.9 billion.
http://sofiaglobe.com/2013/03/06/eu-fines-microsoft-561m-euro-for-browser-screen-fail/
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