780.5 Million Euros Later Microsoft Completes EU Technical Documentation

Two years and 780.5 million euros latter, Microsoft has finalized the submission of technical documentation in relation with a European Commission antitrust decision dating back to 2004. "Microsoft has submitted a revised version of the Technical Documentation," revealed the Commission. The final version of Microsoft's technical Documentation was supposed to have been submitted by July 2004. The Commission's decision demanded of the Redmond Company to: "disclose and license complete and accurate interface documentation which would allow non-Microsoft work group servers to achieve full interoperability with Windows PCs and servers."

For failing to do so, Microsoft was initially fined 500 million euros in 2004, to which the Commission has added another 280.5 million euros in 2006. If the Redmond Company had continued to drag its feet after November 23, 2006, it would have faced financial penalties of 3 million euros per day.

Microsoft has issued an official statement concomitantly with the initial EU Commission's review of the Technical Documents. "This is an important milestone. The Trustee and Microsoft have now completed the technical review and edits to the more than 100 documents, totalling 8,500 pages, that we submitted in July of this year, in accordance with the deadline established by the Commission. We are pleased that the Commission has recognized our efforts to comply with our documentation obligations, and we will continue to work closely with the Commission and the Trustee to ensure that we are in full compliance with every aspect of the Commission's decision."

Microsoft revealed that the Technical Documentation submitted totals 8,500 pages and that it is the result of the work of more than 300 engineers and technical writers.

"The Trustee's team of 7 technical experts has worked tirelessly over the past four months to give us feedback on the enormous volume of technical documentation that we submitted in July, and we have incorporated their input into the documents. The next phase in the process, established by the Commission, is that the documentation is now available for review by any potential licensee, and we look forward to receiving feedback from the industry," concluded Microsoft.