U.S.-based Microsoft's more than decade-long battle with the European Commission has already landed it with fines totalling more than a billion Euros ($1.28 billion).
The Commission, which opened an investigation into the issue in July, is now preparing formal charges against the company, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said.
"The next step is to open a formal proceeding into the company's breach of an agreement. We are working on this," Almunia told reporters at a conference in Warsaw.
"It should not be a long investigation because the company itself explicitly recognized its breach of the agreement," he said.
This is the second time Microsoft has failed to comply with an EU decision. If found guilty of breaching EU rules, it could be penalized up to $7.4 billion or 10 percent of its revenues for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012.
U.S. chipmaker Intel holds the record for the biggest ever fine at 1.06 billion Euros ($1.36 billion), which was imposed in 2009 and represented 4.15 percent of its 2008 turnover.
Keen to avoid more regulatory problems, Microsoft, the world's largest software company, has blamed the latest run-in with the EU watchdog on a technical glitch.
Microsoft declined to comment on Thursday.
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