Microsoft faces €561m fine

The European Commission has hit Microsoft with a €561-million fine because of the company’s failure to give users the option of choosing their internet browser.

The Commission found that Microsoft had failed to make a browser choice screen come up on Windows 7 from May 2011 to July 2012, affecting 15 million users in the EU. In 2009, Microsoft had agreed to make the screen come up for users in the European Economic Area until 2014. The screen would make it easy for users to make an unbiased choice of which internet browser they want to install, as opposed to giving them Microsoft’s Internet Explorer by default.