EU antitrust regulators fined Microsoft 561 million euros ($731 million) on Wednesday for breaking a promise to offer European consumers a choice of web browser.<\/p>\n
Microsoft had made the pledge in 2009 in settling an antitrust investigation in Europe, where the software group’s regulatory troubles date from the last decade and have cost it a total of 2.16 billion euros, including the latest fine.<\/p>\n
Microsoft promised to offer European consumers a choice of rival browsers in the previous version of its Windows operating system. But the European Commission, which acts as competition regulator across the 27-member European Union, said it found the company broke that undertaking between May 2011 and July 2012.<\/p>\n
The Commission said it takes such settlement commitments very seriously.<\/p>\n
“Legally binding commitments reached in antitrust decisions play a very important role in our enforcement policy because they allow for rapid solutions to competition problems,” Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“Of course, such decisions require strict compliance. A failure to comply is a very serious infringement that must be sanctioned accordingly,” he said.<\/p>\n
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