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Tuesday, April 15, 2003
No class-action antitrust claims against Microsoft
A federal judge yesterday likely saved Microsoft Corp. millions of dollars by shielding it from class-action antitrust claims.
U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz ruled that consumers who bought Microsoft's software directly from the company aren't a large, nationwide class.
He made that ruling because, he said, the consumers' lawyers hadn't identified a group of plaintiffs typical of U.S. customers who bought Microsoft's Windows and Office programs.
To simplify handling groups of similar claims, judges sometimes let individual plaintiffs seek damages on behalf of other people who claim they suffered the same injury.
Now that won't happen in the more than 60 antitrust lawsuits pending against Microsoft, which were filed after a different federal judge in 2000 ruled that Microsoft had illegally protected its Windows monopoly.
Yesterday's ruling was a blow to plaintiffs' lawyers who sought to use the prospect of a multimillion-dollar damage award, won on behalf of millions of consumers, to press Microsoft into a costly settlement. Motz criticized the plaintiffs' attorneys, saying they "view this litigation as a chess game in which lawyers, not their clients, are the players."
The ruling is "a significant step in resolving a number of the legal issues facing the company," Microsoft spokeswoman Stacey Drake said.
"It's very good news" for Microsoft, said Don Gher, chief investment officer at Coldstream Capital Management, which owns Microsoft shares. "It solves a little more of the legal battle" against "people jumping on the bandwagon looking for where the money is."
Consumers are still free to pursue individual lawsuits against Microsoft.
This report includes information from Bloomberg News.
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