EC-Microsoft ruling - record fine expected

Microsoft is today expected to be served with a record fine of just under €500m and is also expected to be ordered to change the way it does business.

An announcement by EC competition chief Mario Monti is due just before lunchtime today in Brussels following a weekly meeting of the executive body's 20 commissioners.

The punishment, now widely predicted within the tech and mainstream business press, is the culmination of five years of legal twists and turns and follows the break down of eleventh hour talks last week.

silicon.com will be bringing you the news as it happens from Brussels, with responses from Microsoft as well as foes Sun and RealNetworks, drawing on our network of reporters and sister publications around the world.

The EC will be reacting to complaints that Microsoft enjoys unfair advantages by not sharing codes that allow programs to work as well as its own with Windows server software.

The software giant is also accused of bundling its Media Player audio and video software with its market leading desktop operating system. A similar complaint was at the centre of the US Department of Justice's battle with Microsoft, only the issue there was the bundling of its Internet Explorer web browser.