EU judges asked to toss out Microsoft fine
ENT News | at | by Mike
The record antitrust fine levied against Microsoft by the European Commission should be tossed out, or at least greatly reduced, because the punishment outweighed the infraction, company lawyers said Friday.
Commission lawyers said that to throw out the fine, or even reduce it, would impede regulators' ability to keep a level playing field in the world of business.
"What is left to provide deterrents?" commission lawyer Fernando Castillo de la Torre said, adding the amount of the fine was "proportionate to the gravity of the infringement."
In 2004, the commission ruled that the world's largest software company had to pay a 497 million euro ($613 million) fine, share information with rivals and produce a version of its Windows operating system without Media Player software.