Microsoft has decided to fight an uphill battle against the European Commission by appealing a $1.4 billion fine levied against it for not complying with a milestone European Commission anti-trust ruling. The software giant says it is making a “constructive effort to seek clarity from the court.”

The fine was imposed because of Microsoft's non-compliance with earlier anti-trust rulings and for charging excessive royalty fees to rivals seeking inter-operability information for their server software. European Commission spokesperson Jonathan Todd said in a statement that the commission is “confident that the decision to impose the fine is legally sound.”

The decision to appeal is a bit surprising considering Microsoft had said earlier this year it wanted to make a fresh start in its often bitter relations with the commission. In any case, it seems there’ll be yet another chapter in Microsoft’s decade-long brawl with the EU over antitrust issues.