EU to MS: We Will Decide Compliance

The European Commission shot back at Microsoft Thursday, accusing the company of making misleading statements in the press the day before. It also reminded the media that it was the European Commission's responsibility, and not Microsoft's, to decide whether Redmond was in compliance.

Microsoft was taken to task over its claims that the Commission had ignored the most recent version of technical documents the company was ordered to produce.

"In fact this documentation was actually supplied on 26 December to the Commission, 11 days after the 15 December deadline and 5 days after the Statement of Objection was sent," the EU said in a written statement.

Further bolstering its claims, the Commission added that the Microsoft General Counsel said in a December 15 letter that the new draft only addressed "formatting issues" and was not substantially different from previous versions.

It also said that Microsoft's decision to release source code was not obligatory under the March 2004 antitrust ruling, and that the company should not consider this a solution. While the move could complement the mandate of "complete and accurate specifications," it was on Microsoft to explain why it is relevant to compliance, the Commission said.

The Commission added that it is committed to due process, and Microsoft would receive an oral hearing on the compliance issue, which is expected in the next few weeks. However, if the company is not found in compliance at that point, fines would be applied from December 15, 2005 and the date of the decision.

Such a move could mean that Microsoft may end up paying an additional 100 to 200 million euros in fines on top of the 497 million euros it was ordered to pay as part of the initial antitrust ruling.