The EU executive received the response from the US software giant last Friday. "We have received the reply which we will now be examining," said Amelia Torres, spokeswoman for EU competition commisioner Mario Monti.

The Brussels commission sent Microsoft a "statement of objections" at the start of August, giving it a "last opportunity" to answer the charges in the long-running EU anti-trust case.

At the time it said the US giant will have to present a "very convincing" case to head off the prospect of fines.

In its third such statement to Microsoft, the Commission accused the company of squelching rivals to its Windows Media Player and in the market for "low-end servers" -- computers that provide e-mail and other services to multiple users.

If upheld, the Commission's preliminary findings will require Microsoft to offer remedies such as such as stripping Media Player from the Windows operating system and revealing product secrets for its servers to rivals.

Fines of up to 10 percent of the company's global revenues could also be in the offing. Microsoft could therefore be forced to stump up 3.2 billion dollars (2.8 billion euros) to the EU, after posting revenues of 32.19 billion dollars in 2002-3.

However, past EU fines against companies accused of monopolistic practices have ranged from 0.1 percent to just over 1.0 percent of the firm's revenues.

SPACE.WIRE