Can potentially face many Private Antitrust Lawsuits as seen from MSFT news below. If what you said was correct, then sooner or later will happen. imo.
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Microsoft Faces Private Antitrust
Lawsuits
(02/22/99, 8:03 p.m. ET)
By Reuters
Microsoft has been charged in two private
antitrust lawsuits that could mark the start
of a flood of new litigation against the
software giant, attorneys said Monday.
A small Texas-based company and an individual in
California filed separate class-action lawsuits last week
charging that Microsoft has illegally kept software
prices high through its market dominance.
Gravity, based in Fort Worth, Texas, sued Microsoft
and three of the nation's biggest computer makers over
the pricing of computer operating systems and software
for word processing and spreadsheets.
Microsoft's Windows operating system is loaded on
roughly 90 percent of the world's new personal
computers, while its Word and Excel applications hold
a better than 80 percent market share.
Gravity, which specializes in document and evidence
management for the legal market, also contends that
Microsoft harmed it by failing to disclose application
interfaces, or APIs, needed to develop programs that
sit on top of Windows.
If certified, the class action would encompass millions of
Americans who have bought computers in the past five
years that were made by Compaq, Dell, or Packard
Bell NEC and pre-loaded with Microsoft software.
Officials of the computer companies could not be
reached or said they had not yet seen the complaint.
A similar suit, filed in California state court by a San
Jose man, targets only Microsoft.
"There's nothing new in this suit that we haven't seen
before," said a Microsoft spokesman, who added that
the company has kept the price of Windows low and
cut the price of its application software due to
competition.
But a law professor following the antitrust action against
Microsoft said many more private cases would be filed.
"There is no question there will be more of this," said
William Kovacic of George Washington University.
He said prospective plaintiffs had been emboldened by
the government's strong showing in the federal
courtroom in Washington, D.C., where the government
antitrust case against Microsoft has been unfolding since
October.
"Judging from people I see in the courtroom now and
then, it's apparent that quite a few are handicapping the
race, deciding whether or not to bet on their own
cases," he said.
A government victory in the case, which many analysts
now expect at the trial level, would ease the burden of
plaintiffs by establishing the fact of Microsoft's
monopoly in the operating system market. Plaintiffs still
would have to prove economic harm, which could be a
significant hurdle.
In any event, the private lawsuits could create an
additional distraction for Microsoft, already deeply
entangled in litigation with rival Sun Microsystems as
well as lawsuits filed against it by smaller rivals. |
