[tag]Microsoft[/tag] Corp. was fined $357 million today by the [tag]European Union[/tag] for disobeying the 2004 [tag]antitrust[/tag] order to share program code with competitors. Additional fines of $3.82 million per day could be assessed beginning July 31 if the company fails to supply complete and accurate technical information to program developers to help them make software that works well with the [tag]Windows[/tag] operating system.

Microsoft contends that it made a good-faith effort to comply with the commissioner’s original decision, but that the order lacked clarity and the fines were unjust. The company further says that the EU is trying to force them to hand over patented information which would help developers benefit from Microsoft’s hard work and innovation. The EU counters that the code requested from the company is communications code that has little innovative value.