The European Union (news - web sites)'s head office said Monday Microsoft Corp. could face new fines for possible violations of European data protection laws. EU spokesman Jonathan Todd said the charges against Microsoft related to its free-of-charge .NET Passport service on the Internet, which is used for purchases, playing games and banking transactions.
Todd said EU governments and consumer groups expressed concern about the service to the European Commission (news - web sites), which then passed them on to national regulators.
He added that several EU governments had launched a probe into the service, and said each of the EU's 15 member nations could impose separate fines against Microsoft in this case.
Microsoft already faces another, unrelated EU antitrust investigation into its product line, focussing primarily on Microsoft's Windows program.
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