Microsoft has been fined 561m euros for failing to promote a range of web browsers1, rather than just Internet Explorer, to users in the European Union (EU).
微软因未能使欧盟用户提升各种Web浏览器体验（不仅仅是IE）而被罚款5.61亿欧元。
It introduced a
Browser2 Choice Screen pop-up in March 2010 as part of a settlement following an earlier EU competition
investigation3.
But the US company dropped the feature in a Windows 7 update in February 2011.
Microsoft said the
omission4（疏忽，遗漏） had been the result of a "technical error".
But competition
commissioner5 Joaquin Almunia said the action was
unprecedented6, adding he wanted to
deter7 any company from the "temptation" of
reneging（食言，否认） on such a promise.
In theory the watchdog could have fined the firm 10% of its global annual revenue, which would have totalled $7.4bn based on its 2012 report.
"We take full responsibility for the technical error that caused this problem and have apologised for it," a spokesman for Microsoft said following the announcement.
"We provided the Commission with a complete and
candid8（公正的） assessment9 of the situation, and we have taken steps to strengthen our software development and other processes to help avoid this mistake - or anything similar - in the future."
One lawyer said the ruling was also intended to send out a message to others.
"The European Commission is sending a firm signal in this first case of its type that it will not tolerate failure by a company to comply with the commitments it gave to settle an
antitrust（反垄断的） infringement10 procedure," said Tony Woodgate from Simmons & Simmons.
"These 'commitments decisions' are currently the European Commission's favoured
mechanism11 to close abuse of dominance
proceedings12, saving enforcement resource and allowing for a speedy resolution."
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