Microsoft is nearing the European Union Deadline

As the world’s largest software company Microsoft comes closer to the deadline imposed by the European Union, the possibilities that it might be forced to pay a daily fine of a massive USD 5 million is getting stronger. The company is in dispute over antitrust violation issues with the EU and has been reportedly delaying the steps to come in compliance with the instructions.

Microsoft was found guilty of abusing its market dominance to harm the competition in March 2004. The courts also fined the software giant a sum of USD 655 million. In addition, they told the company to follow certain guidelines to come in compliance with the law giving equal opportunities to their competitors.

Some of the major changes instructed by the courts were removal of the media player application from the installation of the Windows XP Operating System and sharing of the source code of the Operating System with the competing software developing companies. The deadline was set at June 1, which ends tomorrow.

Last week, European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a press release: “The deadline is the end of this month and if it’s not met then it’s the end of the game.” The company is yet to release their plans on how they would come in compliance with the instructions to escape these new punishments. However, they have repeatedly said that they are trying their best to reach an agreement with the European Union.