Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

Out-Law News 1 min. read

Busy few weeks for Microsoft, in and out of court


Microsoft was busy last week, as appeals judges took a look at its antitrust settlement with the US Justice Department and the software giant settled an antitrust action with the State of North Carolina. This week looks busy too, with a three-day hearing in front of the Commission over alleged anti-competitive behaviour in Europe.

Appeals judges grilled Microsoft lawyers on Tuesday in what commentators predict could be the last stage of a six-year antitrust action. Originally brought by the US Department of Justice and twenty states, the case was largely settled in 2002 when Microsoft, the Justice Department and several states signed a judicially approved settlement.

The state of Massachusetts is the only state still pressing for a more stringent agreement, and on Tuesday it, and two trade groups, argued in court that the settlement should be overturned. It is unclear whether the court will agree to this, particularly as the six judges seemed critical of attempts to throw out the earlier judicial ruling.

Last week also saw the settlement of a class action brought on behalf of North Carolina consumers, alleging that Microsoft had violated the state's antitrust and unfair competition laws.

Microsoft said on Thursday that the settlement, which had been announced several weeks ago but has only now received judicial approval, will benefit consumers involved in the class action to the tune of around $89 million.

This will be given to consumers in the form of vouchers for the purchase of technology products and services – and not just Microsoft's.

The vouchers will cover any manufacturer's desktop, laptop or tablet computers running any operating system, or any software.

Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will provide half of any unclaimed settlement proceeds to the state's most needy public schools. The schools will be able to use the vouchers to purchase computer equipment, software and training from any manufacturer. The remaining half will be retained by Microsoft.

Another antitrust action will take a major step forward this week, when Microsoft representatives appear before the European Commission. The software giant is due to put forward its response to the EU's preliminary verdict on an ongoing investigation into allegations that Microsoft acted anti-competitively in Europe.

The hearing is due to begin on Wednesday and will run until Friday.

We are processing your request. \n Thank you for your patience. An error occurred. This could be due to inactivity on the page - please try again.