Judge throws out Microsoft plea
A US court has thrown out Microsoft's request to reject arguments from nine prosecuting states that are seeking sanctions against the software giant.
Microsoft argued that the states had no case to push as the US Department of Justice had already came to an agreement with the company last year over its market dominance.
US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly described the case as ‘unique from its inception’ but said that Microsoft’s arguments had not gone unnoticed.
The ongoing anti-trust case is set to reach a climax with final oral submissions due on June 19.
The US Department of Justice, conceded that Microsoft’s argument to throw out the proposed sanctions was a weak one.
‘While we had hoped for a different outcome on this particular motion, we did raise some important constitutional and policy issues with the court,’ Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler told Reuters.
Microsoft said in its 500-page defence that any sanctions such as those requested by the nine prosecuting states would have a negative effect on the software industry, robbing IT users of a reliable platform on which to run software.