EU Again Warns Microsoft to Obey
The European Commission fired another shot over Microsoft's bow on Friday, warning the company that technical documentation provided to comply with a March 2004 antitrust ruling "as it stands is unusable." The EU sent a letter to Microsoft outlining its continued concerns.
A new report from monitoring trustee Neil Barrett, a computer science professor hired as an independent consultant by the EU, states that Microsoft has added nothing substantial to the documentation despite requests. The Commission says the changes required "are not merely refinements or improvements to the text."
A separate report from consultant TAEUS International found Microsoft's documentation "entirely inadequate," "devoted to obsolete functionality" and "self-contradictory."
"The European Commission has sent a letter to Microsoft setting out its preliminary view on how Microsoft is still not in compliance with its obligations under the March 2004 decision," the EU said in a statement.
"The letter sent today brings this information to Microsoft's immediate attention, in order to provide Microsoft the opportunity to make its views known in writing."
Microsoft, however, continues to assert that it is in full compliance, questioning the integrity of Barrett and the Commission's relationships with several competitors of the Redmond company.
"The commission and the trustee cannot fulfill their respective roles as neutral regulator and independent monitor if they are actively and secretly working with Microsoft's adversaries," Microsoft wrote in a letter sent to the EU last week.
A closed hearing has been set for the end of the month to decide whether the company has complied adequately with the ruling.
If Microsoft is found not in compliance at that point, fines would be applied from December 15, 2005 and the date of the decision. The company could end up paying an additional 100 to 200 million euros in fines on top of the 497 million euros it was ordered to pay initially.
Microsoft's appeal of the original decision will be heard by the European Court of First Instance in April.