Antitrust authorities are sifting through Microsoft Corp's final proposal to comply with a European Commission decision, which the software giant submitted near a midnight deadline, a Commission spokesman said on Wednesday. If the proposals fall short, Microsoft will face a fine of up to $5 million daily, which could be imposed before August. "Contacts continued between the European Commission and Microsoft until late last night, and the commission will now carefully analyse what's on the table," Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd said.
He said the Commission will assess "whether or not we consider that Microsoft has complied with the March 2004 decision."
Said a Microsoft spokesman: "We can confirm that the proposals did go into the commission last night prior to the deadline and we await the commission's response."
The Commission, which polices competition in the 25-nation European Union, fined the US software giant a record 497 million euros ($654.9 million) on March 24, 2004, which it has paid.