Bad news for Microsoft. The software giant has been fined $731 million by the European Commission, for failing to comply with the browser ballot agreement in Europe. In other words, Microsoft was supposed to offer a screen that allowed users to pick which browser they wanted and not be forced to use Internet Explorer.
“In 2009, the Commission had made these commitments legally binding on Microsoft until 2014. In today’s decision, the Commission finds that Microsoft failed to roll out the browser choice screen with its Windows 7 Service Pack 1 from May 2011 until July 2012,” the European Commission stated in an official press release. In essence, about 15 million Windows users in the EU did not see the ballot screen during the indicated period and even Microsoft admitted that the ballot screen was not displayed. Microsoft had blamed a software glitch as the reason for the screen not appearing. Now, the company has to pay big time! Hit the source link for the full press release.
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