MS vs EU - Pay or Comply

Written by Jason Cundall

May 31, 2005 | 12:45

Tags: #brussels #fine

Companies: #europe #microsoft

Time is running out for Bill's boys in Europe. At the time of writing, they have just under 12 hours to comply with EU demands stemming from it's ant-trust case with the company, or face a hefty daily fine:

Microsoft could face a $5m (£2.8m) daily fine from the European Union within days unless it reaches a last minute deal over an antitrust dispute.

In March 2004, Brussels found the US software giant guilty of abusing its market dominance and fined the company 497m euros ($655m; £340m).

More importantly, it ordered Microsoft to make a number of changes, such as sharing software codes.

Unless Microsoft complies with this by 1 June, it faces daily fines.


More from the BBC here.

$5m a day - sounds a lot, and would be for anyone other than megaglobocorp like MS. The thing is, what happens if MS refuse to adhere to the demands, and fails to pay it's fine? It's not as if Brussels can send the bailiffs into Redmond, is it? What possible way has Europe of enforcing this fine? Does this threat have any teeth?

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