A Minnesota court has ruled that consumers can bring a class action
against Microsoft on allegations that the company illegally created
and maintained a monopoly in the computer operating system market,
overcharging for Windows.
Several similar cases have been dismissed in other US states on
the grounds that the consumers did not directly buy Windows from
Microsoft. Instead, the operating system was pre-installed on their
computers by the hardware manufacturers. Under federal law,
indirect purchasers cannot sue in these circumstances; but under
the state laws of Minnesota and eight other states, they can.
Similar lawsuits in California and Arizona have already won
class action status. However, similar lawsuits in Baltimore,
Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Nevada and Oregon and Washington have been
dismissed.
Class actions are not uncommon in the US. They are supported by
English law, but not Scots law. They benefit those whose rights or
liabilities can be more efficiently determined as a group than in a
series of individual lawsuits. For the judge in Minnesota to deem
the case eligible for class action status does not mean he supports
the claims being made by the litigants.
