Microsoft fined another €899 million by EU

The European Competition Commission has announced just how much cash it expects Microsoft to cough up. At €899 million ($1.36 billion) the charge isn't as high as it could've been, but the EC obviously intended for the penalty to have a bite. The fine in question is "entirely retrospective," meaning it applies to events and occurrences before October 22, 2007. Specifically, the fine penalizes Microsoft for setting what the ECC called an "unreasonable" royalty rate. From June 21, 2006 to October 21, 2007, Microsoft charged a 0.7 percent royalty rate for each developed product that made use of the company's interoperability protocols. After October 21, that rate was reduced to 0.4 percent.