Two States Appeal; Other Legal News

The states of Massachusetts and West Virginia are continuing their antitrust fight against Microsoft and will seek stricter remedies than those imposed by a federal judge in Nov. 2002; seven other states have accepted the judge’s order. Meanwhile, another federal judge held a hearing to consider whether to force Microsoft to distribute Sun Microsystems’ Java Virtual Machine (JVM), and Microsoft won an appeal in a tax case.

And Then There Were Two…

Nine states and the District of Columbia did not sign a settlement reached by Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) in Nov. 2001, arguing instead for stricter penalties against the company. But when U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly approved the DoJ settlement in Nov. 2002, she also ruled that these dissenting states would have to accept essentially the same settlement. (For more details, see “Antitrust Settlement Approved with Few Modifications” on page 24 of the Dec. 2002 Update.)

The District of Columbia and the states of California, Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, and Utah have accepted this judgment and ended their participation in the case, and they plan to pursue further litigation only if they determine that Microsoft is not obeying the terms of the judgment. Microsoft has agreed to pay these plaintiffs approximately US$25 million in legal fees and US$3.6 million to cover ongoing enforcement.