Microsoft Corp. this week could make history of a sort by becoming the first company to be hit by the European Commission with daily fines for failing to comply with an antitrust ruling.

The EC last week rejected Microsoft's request to extend from Wednesday to Feb. 28 the deadline for the company to show that it's complying with the commission's March 2004 antitrust edict or face fines of up to 2 million euros (US$2.4 million) per day. Microsoft claims that its January offer to open up access to some of the Windows communications protocols went far beyond what the EC is mandating.

But the EC has retorted that the offer doesn't fully meet its criteria, and sources said that EC Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes has run out of patience with the company.

The commission raised the specter of daily fines on Dec. 22, when it sent Microsoft a "statement of objections" detailing the vendor's continued lack of compliance.

Microsoft argues that it hasn't received information it needs in order to answer the EC's charges. "It has been six weeks since we received the statement of objections, and we still do not have access to the case file," a Microsoft spokesman said. "This is a basic question of fairness and transparency."