Microsoft fined $1.3 Billion by EU

Talk about a hefty fine. Microsoft has indeed taken it on the chin with this one, with a record fine of $1.3 billion by the European Union for what it considers unfair business practices by the giant software company.

The fine stems from an investigation that claims that Microsoft unfairly charged software competitors for wanting to develop software that was compatible with the Windows OS. Back in March of 2007, the EU disputed that Microsoft fees for sharing information software developers was unfair. In the EU, Microsoft was charging royalties of 3.87% of competitor product revenues for patents and 2.98% product revenues for communication information. Two months after the EU complained about the fees, Microsoft dropped its EU rates to 0.7% product revenue for patents and 0.5% product revenue for communication information respectively.

In October, Microsoft changed its rates even further by charging a license for interoperability information to a flat fee of $15,000 and a patent license fee of only 0.4% of competitor product revenue. Obviously, the reductions didn’t sway the EU from dropping a bomb of a fine on Microsoft.

Thanks to Geek.com for this news.