News 

The EU issued the fine in late February for failing to meet the European Commission's (EC) requirements on the licensing of protocols that allow third-party applications to connect to Microsoft server products.

While Microsoft confirmed that it was filing an appeal on the fine, it has refused to make any other comment, though it is not thought to be appealing the initial judgement.

Jonathan Todd, spokesman for the EU Competition Commission states: "The Commission is confident that the decision to impose the fine is legally founded."

Since February, Microsoft has published thousands of pages of documentation online to make its protocols available to developers, as it seeks to follow through on its promise to "open up".