Microsoft was today hit with a massive €561 million (£482 million) fine by EU competition chiefs for failing to offer users of its Windows operating system alternative internet browsers to its own Internet Explorer.
Today’s fine, 1% of the company’s 2012 revenues, brings to €2.24 billion the penalties racked up by Microsoft in its clashes with the EU over the past decade. “A failure to comply is a very serious infringement that must be sanctioned accordingly,” EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said.
The world’s largest software maker, headed by chief executive Steve Ballmer, agreed in 2009 to offer access to rival browsers as part of a settlement to repair its relationship with EU regulators. The company said last July it only learned that month that it didn’t offer its browser choice software to some 28 million computers running Windows 7 Service Pack 1.Under Microsoft’s 2009 pledge, consumers who bought personal computers were given a choice of the 12 most widely used browsers to install in addition to, or instead of, Internet Explorer.
