DOJ: Microsoft antitrust settlement has benefited consumers
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(InfoWorld) - The 2002 antitrust settlement between Microsoft and the U.S. government has yielded several benefits for consumers with competing Web browsers, multimedia applications, and Web-based services flourishing since the agreement, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday. The DOJ, in an 11-page report, said the settlement seems to be working, despite questions from critics. "There have been a number of developments in the competitive landscape ... that suggest that the Final Judgments are accomplishing their stated goal of fostering competitive conditions among middleware products, unimpeded by anticompetitive exclusionary obstacles erected by Microsoft," said the report, from the DOJ and the group of states led by New York that sued the company. Among the DOJ's evidence that the settlement is working: Increased competition to Internet Explorer from other Web browsers, such as Firefox and Opera; the popularity of Apple's iTunes and QuickTime and Adobe's Flash for handling multimedia content; the increasing use of Web-based services for e-mail and other applications; and the decisions by hardware vendors like DellÂ to offer Linux preloaded on their computers. Apple introduced QuickTime in 1991, long before the antitrust lawsuit. Hardware vendors have been preloading Linux on computers dating back to the late '90s. "To be sure, none of the products mentioned ... have to date resulted in a dramatic reduction in Microsoft's PC operation system market share," the DOJ report said. "The Final Judgements were targeted to reinvigorating competitive conditions that Microsoft had suppressed, not to slicing off some part of Windows' market share." Microsoft, in a statement, said the judgment has fostered competition. The judgment "defined clear rules for how Microsoft competes without preordaining winners in the technology marketplace," Brad Smith, Microsoft's senior vice president and general counsel, said in the statement. "The [judgment] shaped how we view our responsibilities and led us to adopt a set of voluntary principles that will continue to apply even after major parts of the U.S. antitrust ruling expire this November." The judgment and competitive principles Microsoft has adopted "provide the industry and consumers with the benefits of ongoing innovation by Microsoft, while creating and preserving robust opportunities for competition," Smith added. Microsoft, in its own antitrust status report issued Thursday, said competing middleware products continue to "proliferate." Seven top PC makers preinstall an average of 35 non-Microsoft software products before shipping them out, the Microsoft report said. Other groups have questioned the benefits of the settlement. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, has at times questioned the benefits, even though she approved the judgment. In a hearing in February 2005, Kollar-Kotelly questioned "what, if any, effect" the judgment has had on the software market. Another group of states led by California that also sued Microsoft and has been critical of the judgment is scheduled to release its own report by Friday. A status report on Microsoft's antitrust compliance is scheduled before Kollar-Kotelly on Sept. 11.
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Editor&#39;s Summary: Microsoft announced that it paid an undisclosed amount to the CCIA trade group so that it won&#39;t challenge the software maker&#39;s US antitrust settlement or participate in a European Union antitrust case.
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A class-action lawsuit that alleged Microsoft Corp. overcharged consumers was settled Wednesday for an undisclosed amount.
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A federal court hearing today is set to review the terms of Microsoft's five-year-old settlement order, which ended the Justice Department's antitrust case against the software giant. A brief filed by Google argues the order should remain in force, because of anticompetitive features in Windows Vista.
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California consumers and  businesses will soon receive $1.1 billion in delayed payouts  from Microsoft Corp.  to settle antitrust claims  against the world's biggest software maker, lawyers in the case  said on Wednesday.
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Microsoft hailed the agreement as the culmination of a multibillion-dollar campaign to settle antitrust conflicts with its major antagonists.
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Microsoft has agreed to settle a multimillion dollar lawsuit brought by thousands of Iowa consumers and businesses who say the company's anticompetitive practices forced them to pay inflated prices for software including Microsoft's Windows, Word and Excel.
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Nov. 10, 2004. Microsoft is extending the policy that currently protects some of its business customers from potential legal costs associated with intellectual-property disputes to all of its customers, including consumers.
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Agency cites increased competition from Firefox, iTunes, Flash, and web-based e-mail--as well as Dell's Linux-based PC offerings--as evidence that the settlement did its job.
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The latest status report on Microsoft Corp.'s compliance with an antitrust settlement in the U.S. has cleared the company of a separate accusation of not complying with orders to disclose information to make its products more interoperable.
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The award for fees and costs comes in a case in which Microsoft agreed to allocate $1.1 billion for California consumers. By Associated Press.
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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Microsoft filed formal paperwork Wednesday to extend part of an antitrust judgment against the company for at least two years.
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BRUSSELS Microsoft said Monday that it had reached legal settlements with two of its biggest adversaries in the software industry, Novell and the Computer and Communications Industry Association.
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Sep. 17, 2004. A judge is ordering the Microsoft to pay $112.5 million to attorneys who successfully sued the software maker for monopolizing a segment of California&#39;s market.
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Microsoft has reached a $536 million legal settlement with Novell, resolving all outstanding antitrust claims by Novell against Microsoft involving NetWare and its other products.
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California lawyers who reached a $1.1 billion class-action settlement with Microsoft will get less than half the legal fees they requested.
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A ruling against the European Commission in the Microsoft antitrust case could affect its ability to regulate competition.