Microsoft Faces Fresh EU Probe Over Web-Browser Choice
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) faces a European Union antitrust probe into allegations it is failing to offer consumers a choice of Internet browsers under terms of a previous settlement with regulators.
EU Competition Commission Joaquin Almunia said regulators had received complaints that Microsoft may have misled the EU over the use of a browser choice screen for users of its Windows operating system .
Microsoft has already been fined 1.68 billion euros ($2.06 billion) in EU antitrust probes dating back a decade. The Redmond, Washington-based company agreed to offer access to competitors’ browsers as a part of a 2009 settlement to repair its relationship with the bloc’s regulators.
“I trusted that the company’s reports were accurate,” Almunia said in an e-mailed statement. “It seems that was not the case, so we have immediately taken action.”
Robin Koch, a spokesman for Microsoft in Brussels declined to immediately comment. Microsoft can be fined up to 10 percent of yearly revenue for breaching the terms of its settlement.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Chapman at pchapman10@bloomberg.net
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