NEW YORK: Software titan Microsoft Corp is facing federal charges of false
and deceptive advertising for the second time in less than a year, the Wall
Street Journal reported in its online edition on Monday.
Microsoft is already negotiating to settle the charges, pending before the
Federal Trade Commission, the paper reported lawyers close to the case as
saying. A Microsoft spokesman Sunday declined comment, it said.
The FTC focused on Microsoft's aggressive advertising campaign targeting Palm
Inc, whose products compete against those hand-held devices using Microsoft's
Windows software, the paper said. The FTC found that Microsoft's "can your
palm do that?" ads, last year deceptively claimed features that were
unavailable unless buyers spent more for wireless capability, lawyers close to
the case were reported as saying.
Microsoft recently ended the ad campaign, which ran widely in newspapers and
magazines, with no mention of the FTC inquiry, the paper said. In a new, $3
million ad campaign, Microsoft makes no references to Palm while showing a new
generation of wireless devices at work, it added.
(C) Reuters Limited 2001.