Microsoft has been under growing pressure to implement the sanctions, following the Commission's decision last year that the company broke competition law by leveraging its near monopoly in the market for PC operating systems onto the markets for work group server operating systems and for media players.
As a result, the Commission ordered Microsoft to give competitors the specifications (but not the source code) for its client-to-server and server-to-server communications protocols.
Microsoft was also required to offer an alternative stripped-down version of Windows to PC manufacturers and when selling directly to end users and it was fined €497 million for abusing its market dominance in the EU.
While some progress has been made towards compliance, it now appears that Microsoft has until the end of May to confirm how it will fulfil the rest of its obligations.
"We made a deal that before the end of the month we would reach an agreement [on remedies]. We are waiting for the Microsoft people to do their homework," Neelie Kroes, the European Competition Commissioner, told Reuters.
Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd confirmed in February that the Commission has the power to impose penalty payments of up to five percent of Microsoft's average daily turnover. But the Commission has so far been reluctant to impose fines for failure to comply that could, based on last year's turnover, amount to around $5 million a day.
