Microsoft has been under growing pressure to implement the
sanctions, following the Commission's decision last year that the
company broke competition law by leveraging its near monopoly in
the market for PC operating systems onto the markets for work group
server operating systems and for media players.
As a result, the Commission ordered Microsoft to give
competitors the specifications (but not the source code) for its
client-to-server and server-to-server communications protocols.
Microsoft was also required to offer an alternative
stripped-down version of Windows to PC manufacturers and when
selling directly to end users and it was fined €497 million for
abusing its market dominance in the EU.
While some progress has been made towards compliance, it now
appears that Microsoft has until the end of May to confirm how it
will fulfil the rest of its obligations.
"We made a deal that before the end of the month we would reach
an agreement [on remedies]. We are waiting for the Microsoft people
to do their homework," Neelie Kroes, the European Competition
Commissioner, told Reuters.
Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd confirmed in February that
the Commission has the power to impose penalty payments of up to
five percent of Microsoft's average daily turnover. But the
Commission has so far been reluctant to impose fines for failure to
comply that could, based on last year's turnover, amount to around
$5 million a day.
