Judge Refuses to Dismiss Microsoft Case
WASHINGTON -- A federal judge refused to dismiss the Microsoft Corp. antitrust case Wednesday, handing a victory to state prosecutors seeking stiffer sanctions on the company than it agreed to in a settlement with the Justice Department.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly rejected the company’s argument that the states had no legal right to pursue national antitrust sanctions. But her opinion was less an endorsement of state authority and more a procedural ruling that the issue already had been decided by other courts involved in the case.
Last summer a federal appeals court ruled that Microsoft broke antitrust laws, but it rejected a lower court’s order to break up the company. Instead, it sent the case back for hearings on how Microsoft’s conduct should be rectified.
“This court is loath to presume, as Microsoft does, that the court of appeals did not consider the jurisdictional issue of standing,” the judge wrote.
The decision means that the states’ case can continue, though the judge has yet to rule on several other pending Microsoft motions that, were she to grant them, would eviscerate the sanctions sought by the states.
The two sides are scheduled to present closing arguments next week.
Iowa Atty. Gen. Tom Miller said the decision “confirms the rightful role of state attorneys general to prosecute antitrust violations.”
Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said that “while we’d hoped for a different outcome, ... we did raise some important constitutional and policy issues with the court.”
The judge offered few clues in her decision about how she might ultimately decide the case. But she hinted strongly that she is still considering whether the Justice Department’s view of how the case should be resolved ought to take precedence in the rare cases in which there is disagreement between states and the federal government.
Both the Justice Department and Microsoft have made that argument in seeking to persuade Kollar-Kotelly to accept their settlement deal.
