Finalfine · Antitrust (Art. 102 TFEU)
Microsoft fined €497M in the landmark Windows case
€497M
≈ $537M at the time
European Commission
EU · 2004
Status: Final
What happened
In a landmark case, the Commission found that Microsoft abused its Windows dominance by bundling Media Player and withholding interoperability information from rival server-software makers.
How it affected users
Choice in media software was reduced, and rival products worked worse with Windows.
Status timeline
Mar 24, 2004
Penalty announced.
Sources
Last verified 2026-07-02. Spotted an error? Report a correction.
Cite this entry
Deepak Gupta, "Microsoft fined €497M in the landmark Windows case," Tech Fines Directory, guptadeepak.com, 2004-03-24. https://guptadeepak.com/tech-fines/violation/microsoft-eu-mediaplayer-2004/