The European Commission can confirm that Microsoft has submitted a revised version of the technical documentation with a view to meeting the requirements of the Commission’s March 2004 Decision, it said in a statement.
Earlier this month Microsoft was set a deadline of November 23 to provide the Competition Commission with complete interoperability information or face fines of up to 3m euros ($3.8m) a day.
While Microsoft met the deadline it is still too early to decide whether the company has avoided further fines. That decision will come following feedback from potential licensees and tests carried out by the monitoring trustee.
The Commission will decide in due course whether or not Microsoft is in compliance with the obligation to provide complete and accurate technical documentation, the statement continued.
In July the Commission hit Microsoft with a 280.5m euro ($358.8m) fine for failing to comply with the Commission’s 2004 antitrust ruling and gave the company a deadline of July 19 to complete its task.
Frustration at Microsoft’s failure to do so led European competition commissioner Neelie Kroes to threaten the company with increased fines. I don’t have eternal life, she said in an interview with the UK’s Guardian newspaper earlier this month.
In a statement noting what it called the completion of the initial European Commission review of Microsoft’s technical documents Microsoft said it would continue to work with the Commission to ensure it is in compliance.
Microsoft is currently appealing against Commission’s 280.5m euro fine, as well as the initial 497.2m euro ($636.9m) fine delivered after it was found guilty of breaking European Union competition law in March 2004. Separately, Microsoft is also appealing demands that it should have to share the interoperability information with open source rivals.
