If Microsoft's grand announcement last week of their new, broad commitment to openness and interoperability standards was intended as a sop to the European Union Court of First Instance to forestall any additional anti-trust action in that venue as many commentators have suggested, then it's been a tremendous failure so far. Bloomberg News reported Monday that the EU plans to go ahead and levy fines against the Microsoft company for failing to comply adequately with the terms of a 2004 anti-trust decision against it in that venue.

In hindsight this was probably entirely predictable; Microsoft's history is such that almost no one takes anything they say at face value anymore. You could see it in the press reaction to the announcement, where even those with a positive take on it assumed some sort of machinations behind the scenes and counter to the stated intent. Indeed, even the fact that I'm relating the EU fine back to the Microsoft announcement, despite the fact that both parties have indicated that the cases are unrelated, speaks to the degree of deception one assumes is involved in any incident involving the company.

Despite their history, however, it may be that Microsoft is at least partly a victim here. While their business practices and anti-competetive actions have been reprehensible in many cases, it's possible that the EU is over-reaching and creating precedent which, if satisfying to those who have been baying for Microsoft's blood these many years, ultimately may stifle both innovation and interoperability. I suggested the possibility in my original post on the 2004 decision; and it's not clear the EU anti-trust chief Neelie Kroes has the perception or expertise to foresee the consequences of some of the actions she is pursuing.