By ReutersInformationWeek
"Microsoft today filed to the (EU) Court of First Instance
an application to annul the European Commission decision of
February 27," the U.S. software giant said in a statement.
"We are filing this appeal in a constructive effort to seek
clarity from the court," it said.
The European Union's executive Commission, which has been
locked in a long-running battle over fair-competition issues
with Microsoft, said in response that it was confident the fine
was "legally sound".
The Commission had said it was imposing the fine because the
U.S. software group had defied a 2004 order from Brussels to
provide information to competitors on reasonable terms.
Microsoft has been fined a total of 1.68 billion euros by
the EU for abusing its 95 percent dominance of PC operating
systems through its Windows operating system.
The 899 million euro fine was the biggest ever imposed on a
company by the EU executive.
The Commission had initially fined Microsoft 497 million
euros in March 2004 for withholding interoperability information
for "work group server" software and for deliberately damaging
rivals by tying its Windows Media Player to its Windows system.
Microsoft unsuccessfully appealed against that penalty and
was also later fined 280.5 million euros by the Commission for
non-compliance.
The latest fine picked up from where the 280.5 million euro
penalty left off, covering the period from June 21, 2006 until
Oct. 21, 2007.
(Reporting by David Lawsky, writing by Darren Ennis, editing by
Dale Hudson)
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