“Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of E.U. competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision,” Ms. Kroes said in a statement. “I hope that today’s decision closes a dark chapter in Microsoft’s record of noncompliance with the commission’s March 2004 decision.”  Heike Schweitzer, professor of competition law at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, said the high penalty “can only be understood as a reaction to a behavior by Microsoft.”  She added that the commission interpreted it as “a blatant circumvention of the rules it imposed, and as a strong signal that, under such conditions, the commission will go close to the limits in order to provide for effective deterrence.”  Last Thursday, Microsoft published 30,000 pages of previously secret software code for the Windows operating system on its Web site. The company called the move a significant concession toward greater openness and compatibility with competitors. The commission greeted that news coolly, noting that Microsoft had made “at least four similar statements” in the past.  Microsoft said it was reviewing the commission’s action. It added that the fines were “about the past issues that have been resolved.”  While the fine closes this chapter of the commission’s dispute with Microsoft, the company has other pending matters before the commission. The commission is examining whether the bundling of Internet Explorer into Microsoft Windows has unfairly excluded competitors from the Web browser market. It will also investigate whether Microsoft withheld essential information from companies that wanted to make products compatible with its ubiquitous software, including the Office word processing and spreadsheet programs.  Ms. Kroes, in her comments, scarcely sought to disguise her annoyance with Microsoft. Her actions also appeared to end any hope Microsoft might have entertained that it was entering a new era of cooperation with Ms. Kroes.  Rapprochement seemed to be possible after Microsoft agreed in October to fall into line with the 2004 decision. Steven A. Ballmer, the chief executive, agreed to do so after meeting Ms. Kroes in a restaurant near her home north of The Hague. But on Wednesday, Ms. Kroes underlined how little trust she had in Microsoft.  “I can remember four times when, if you were naïve, you could have thought everything was fixed,” Ms. Kroes said. “This didn’t seem to be the reality. They have to deliver and implement.”  The decision in March 2004 required Microsoft to disclose within 120 days information that would allow rival vendors to interoperate with the Windows system. European antitrust officials said the royalties and patent fees the company sought for use of the data were excessive.  Ms. Kroes said the fine was calculated based on the fact that Microsoft was in breach of the commission’s order for 488 days. It represented 60 percent of the maximum $2.25 billion that the commission could have imposed, she said. (The dollar amount of the fines, which were levied in euros, have been converted using the exchange rates that then prevailed.) The commission had already fined Microsoft more than $600 million at the time of the 2004 ruling, and more than $350 million in July 2006 for failing to comply with a requirement that it license network communications technology.  Ms. Schweitzer, the law professor, said the amount of the fine Wednesday was striking given the nature of the issue — a ruling that royalty pricing should be reasonable.  “I am surprised that they have imposed such a high penalty over such a vague and difficult concept as reasonable pricing,” Ms. Schweitzer said, “although the difference between the royalties originally charged by Microsoft and the one ultimately found to be reasonable is indeed significant.”  Adam Collinson, a partner at the Eversheds law firm in Britain, said that Ms. Kroes’s “personal irritation at the Microsoft situation is palpable.” He added, however, that the situation may not have been straightforward for the corporation because “Microsoft had to make a judgment as to what levels of royalty would be regarded as reasonable for supply of the interoperability information.”  Thomas Vinje, a spokesman for the European Committee for Interoperable Systems, a group including several Microsoft competitors, praised the decision.  “Commissioner Kroes is to be commended for her perseverance over the last three years in the face of Microsoft’s foot-dragging and appeals,” he said.  A version of this article appears in print on , on Page C3 of the New York edition with the headline: Microsoft Gets Record Fine and a Rebuke From Europe. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
Regulators issued the company a $1.35 billion fine for failing to comply with a 2004 judgment that it had abused its dominance.