WASHINGTON -- In a final round of legal briefs, Massachusetts urged a U.S. appeals court Wednesday to impose tougher antitrust sanctions against Microsoft Corp. The state complained that a settlement negotiated with the Bush administration was inadequate to discourage future monopolists from behaving illegally.
Lawyers for Massachusetts, the only state to refuse to settle the landmark antitrust case, accused the trial judge of a "profound misunderstanding" when she approved the settlement among Microsoft, the Justice Department and 18 other states.
The state wants the appeals court to instruct the trial judge to impose tougher penalties, including a requirement that Microsoft be forced to remove some features from its Windows operating system. Courtroom arguments before the appellate judges were to begin in November.
The Massachusetts lawyers said the existing settlement "fails to stop all of the behavior this court found illegal, does nothing to restore the competitive threat that Microsoft unlawfully thwarted and does not deprive Microsoft of the marketplace benefits achieved through its misdeeds."
A Microsoft spokesman, Jim Desler, said the company "has complied with all aspects of the consent decree." Microsoft has argued previously it is unable to remove features from Windows, such as its audio or video software.
The court fight culminated last November when U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly accepted nearly all the settlement provisions. She rebuffed arguments by nine states and the District of Columbia that tougher sanctions were essential to restore competition in the computer industry.
All the states except Massachusetts eventually joined in the settlement, which gives Microsoft rivals more flexibility to offer competing software features on computers running its flagship Windows operating system.
Massachusetts said the settlement doesn't deter future monopolists from illegal acts.
"If this is the remedy in a case of this magnitude, then there is little reason why any monopolist or would-be monopolist should hesitate to embark on a similar course of unlawful conduct," lawyers wrote.
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Source:
SeattlePI
