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Microsoft To Fight EU Fines

Microsoft on Thursday accused the European Union Commission of constantly changing its antitrust demands, and said it would fight the huge daily fines the Commission threatens to levy.

Earlier Thursday, the Commission, which is responsible for seeing that Microsoft complies with a 2004 antitrust ruling, said it would begin fining the U.S.-based developer up to 2 million euros ($2.37 million) a day if the company doesn't meet its demands.

Among those, said the Commission, was to provide better documentation on the inner workings of Windows, a necessary move to give competitors a level playing field in building Windows applications, the EU said.

The Commission said it would back-date the fines to Dec. 15. If it follows through, Microsoft already is in the hole to the EU to the tune of 16 million euros ($19 million).

Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, blasted the Commission in a prepared statement released later Thursday.

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