Brussels, 04/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - As it said it intended to do after the announcement of the fines, the US firm Microsoft lodged an appeal with the Court of First Instance on Monday against the Commission's July decision (EUROPE 9231). At the time, the Commission had said that, over two years after its decision taken in March 2004 (EUROPE 8854), the affair had dragged on too long. It had thus noted that Microsoft had still not complied with its obligations of interoperability and had therefore imposed a fine of €280.5 million on the company. A retroactive fine under Article 24§2 of Regulation 1/2003, for which it had set out the principle in its letter of grievances dated December 2005 (EUROPE 9096). Microsoft has always challenged the clarity of the interoperability remedy, which mainly means that it should communicate information to those who conceive working group server operating systems so that their products are compatible with Windows. (ab)