Plan to Let Judges Cut Damages Is Blocked

A commission created by Congress to consider changing U.S. antitrust law defeated a proposal to let judges reduce damages for thwarting competition imposed on companies such as Microsoft Corp.

The Antitrust Modernization Commission, meeting in Washington, voted 8 to 3 to preserve the existing law, which permits individuals and companies to collect triple damages if they can prove they were harmed by anti-competitive practices such as price-fixing or illegal protection of a monopoly.

The proposal would have called on Congress to give federal trial judges discretion to cut damages under certain circumstances from three times the economic harm to the actual financial loss.