EU regulators to accuse Microsoft of overcharging on software licences

BRUSSELS - The will soon formally tell Microsoft that the US software giant is charging too much for some of its Windows software licences, an EU source said.

The EU competition watchdog is growing increasingly frustrated with Microsoft's failure to apply a March 2004 ruling against the company in their seven-year anti-trust standoff.

The 's executive arm fined the software group in March 2004 a record 497 million euros (638 million dollars) for abusing its dominant market power and demanded the company divulge information about its operating system needed by manufacturers of rival products.

Microsoft was required to ensure that the information necessary for this interoperability was "accessible to third parties under reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions".

The commission considers that Microsoft has been overcharging for this information, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

As a result, the source said: "The commission will send a statement of objections at the end of July or in the autumn".

A statement of objections is the regulators' charge-sheet and marks the first step towards disciplinary action.

The commission has already sent a separate statement of objections on December 21 last year on the issue of interoperability

Brussels has threatened to slap a daily fine of up to two million euros on Microsoft, backdated to December 15 -- its deadline to respect the ruling -- for failure to comply.

The source said it is "very probable" that fines would be imposed.

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