Microsoft gets a billion-dollar slapdown

That’s courtesy of the European Union, which fined Microsoft a record $1.3 billion for charging software developers what the EU said was unreasonable prices for Windows information to help them make Windows-compatible products.

Add to this the verbal smackdown:

Microsoft immediately said the issues for which it was fined have been resolved and the company was making its products more open.

The fine comes less that a week after Microsoft said it would share more information about its products and technology in an effort to make it work better with rivals’ software and meet the demands of antitrust regulators in Europe.

But EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes remained skeptical and said Microsoft was under investigation in two additional cases.

“Talk is cheap,” Kroes said. “Flouting the rules is expensive.”

Indeed.

We’ll have a Democratic presidential candidate actually talk about stiffening U.S. business regulations this much in about, say, 50 years.