EU fines Microsoft record $1.3b

Anti-trust penalty spoils 'biggest ever' launch of flagship enterprise products

The European Union fined Microsoft a record $1.3b today as the software company began what it described as its biggest-ever enterprise product launch.

The fine was for failing until last October to comply with a 2004 order, which came with a $613m fine, to open its programming interfaces and communications protocols up to rivals.

It was fined $357m in July, 2006, on a similar count. Last October it offered rivals a flat-rate deal on interoperability data, after the EU complained that it had set royalties too high.

News of the latest fine came as Microsoft launched the 2008 versions of Windows Server, SQL Server, and Visual Studio.

Executives at the London launch refused to answer questions on the EU fine, saying a statement would be made after the details has been digested.

The fine comes just days after Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer announced that then company was going to open its interfaces completely to rivals – a move that was greeted with vocal scepticism by EU regulators.

It also comes as a standards committee sifts through proposed amendments to Microsoft's Open Office XML formats (OOXML) designed to meet objections to their adoption as a global ISO standard.

The amended specification, if agreed, will be put to a vote by national standards bodies over the coming month.