The European Commission has levied a fine of $1.35 billion (E899 million) against Microsoft Corp for not complying with a 2004 antitrust ruling. The fine is a record setter, the biggest ever against a single company. However, when the company leader is the richest man in America and in the Top 5 richest people on the planet with a personel net worth greater than $60 billion, and owns a company with assests too astronomical to imagine — $1-plus billion in fines is chump-change.
“Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of European Union competition policy that the Commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision,” said European competition commissioner Neelie Kroesin a statement on Wednesday. “I hope that today’s decision closes a dark chapter in Microsoft’s record of non-compliance with the Commission’s March 2004 decision.”
You can read the full details of the EU ruling and the reasons for it in this Ali Jaafar article from Variety.
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