FAILURE to offer 15 million internet users a choice of web brower has cost Microsoft £484 million.
The penalty is equivalent to 11% of the US firm's quarterly profits and was imposed by the European Commission in a landmark anti-competition ruling.
Shares in Microsoft slumped on the news that it had been fined for breaking a legally binding commitment ensure that consumers had a choice of how they access the internet, rather than defaulting to Microsoft's Explorer browser.
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