Regulators support new fines for Microsoft

European regulators have given their backing to the European Commission to slap huge new fines on Microsoft for failing to comply with a 2004 antitrust ruling, an AFP report said.

The report said the fines, which could go as high as 2 million euros a day, would be backdated to December 15, and could therefore reach as much as 400 million euros.

Representatives of regulators in EU member-states meeting in Brussels voted unanimously in favor of the fines, two sources said on condition of anonymity, according to the AFP report.

EU national regulators would meet again next Monday to discuss the size of daily fines that could be imposed on Microsoft starting in the coming weeks, the report added.

An EU source said the European Commission would make a final decision on the fines on July 12 or 19, although the first date was more likely, according to the report.

After a five-year investigation, the commission took its biggest competition decision ever in March 2004 in ruling that Microsoft had broken EU law by using a quasi-monopoly in personal computer operating systems to thwart rivals, the report further said.