Class action suits set to make a grand exit

After Federal Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson declared Microsoft a monopoly,

lawyers across the United States filed some 125 class-action lawsuits against

company. Only 38 of those have survived, although a US judge in Baltimore

indicated he may throw most, if not all of those out as well. US District Judge

Frederick Motz was asked by Microsoft to dismiss the lawsuits on the basis of a

1977 Supreme Court that states that only consumers who purchase a product

directly from an antitrust violator can press claims they were illegally

overcharged.

Motz appeared to agree with Microsoft's position when he said that the claims

that Microsoft's alleged misconduct denied consumers access to superior,

competing products such as IBM's OS/2 operating system, a product that was

driven from the market by the Windows' dominance. "How could that translate

into anything that's definable to consumers as opposed to a competitor that was

put out of business? I find that somewhat chaotic," Motz told lawyers for

the plaintiffs.

The lawsuits accuse Microsoft of stifling innovation and the development of

new products. Motz questioned how a court could measure damages to consumers who

were denied benefits of products "that never existed.''

Microsoft attorney David Tulchin said claims that "better software would

have been developed if Microsoft's monopoly had never existed is an argument for

some fantasy land. The cases must be dismissed, because there are no allegations

the plaintiffs purchased directly from Microsoft. Plaintiffs purchased their

software not from Microsoft but either from retailers or more commonly in

software that was preinstalled."