14 DAY TRIAL // Is it a case of 'he said she said'? Or is it a case of the lack of willingness to offer interoperability to a newly thriving economy known as the European Union? Either way, $2.4 million a day isn't so bad for Microsoft. The Redmond based software giant might just earn its place in history as the first company to receive daily fines by the European Union for failing to respect one of its antitrust rulings. Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, has given the company until Feb. 15 to comply with the Commission's March 2004 ruling or face a fine of up to ?2 million (US$2.4 million) a day.
It seems as though Microsoft will not meet the Commission's demands on time so the procedure of imposed daily fines is set to start. Gary Barnett, an analyst covering the company at Ovum Ltd. in the U.K. said, "I wouldn't be at all surprised if the E.U. went ahead and fined Microsoft."
The issue at hand is still if Microsoft has done enough to offer interoperability with its workgroup server software, one of the three elements of the Commission's 2004 ruling. "We have done everything we can to respond to the Commission's changing demands, even going beyond the decision," a company spokesman said The company argues it has gone far beyond what the Commission is asking for by offering to open access to its secretive source code.
Thomas Vinje, a lawyer at Clifford Chance who represents rival software companies supporting the case against Microsoft, countered Microsoft's position as being just stubborn. "Software companies know how to write interface specifications [to ensure interoperability with other companies' products]. They do it all the time and so does Microsoft. But they're not doing it here because they don't want to," Vinie said.
Microsoft also argues over the lack of information and response time it has received, "It has been six weeks since we received the statement of objections, we have eight days left to respond, and we still do not have access to the case file. This is a basic question of fairness and transparency," a Microsoft spokesman said. Yet some might argue that this is a tactic for buying more time in order to decide how it will act.