Brussels, Aug 19 (DPA) The total amount of fines slapped by the European Commission on businesses found guilty of violating its anti-trust rules since 2004 has exceeded the 10 billion euro ($14 billion) mark, officials in Brussels said Wednesday.

However, the figure is substantially lower than estimates of the harm caused by cartels to EU consumers - 7.6 billion euros between 2005 and 2007 - according to the commission's Report on Competition Policy 2008.

The European Union's executive arm in Brussels acts as a bastion of the bloc's single market, fighting illegal subsidies, price-fixing cartels and all sorts of anti-competitive behaviours by businesses operating in Europe.

Its role has been strengthened by the appointment in November 2004 of Neelie Kroes, a no-nonsense liberal politician and former Dutch government minister who in 2006 climbed to number 38 in the Forbes' list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women.

In the five years prior to her appointment, by contrast, the total amount of anti-trust fines imposed by the commission had totalled 3.7 billion euros, according to official figures.

Kroes' most celebrated anti-trust crackdown involved software giant Microsoft, which was fined numerous times and was eventually forced to pay a total of 1.7 billion euros for using its market dominance to stifle its competitors.

The biggest single fine - 1.06 billion euros - was inflicted in May on US computer chip maker Intel after it was found guilty of bribing retailers and manufacturers to shut its main rival, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), out of EU markets.