Microsoft Antitrust Monitoring Extended to 2009

by , 11:15 AM EST, January 30th, 2008

Microsoft's hopes for an early end to the antitrust consent decree went out the window when U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly extended parts of the agreement out to November 12, 2009. The decree was extended because the court felt that the final judgements had not yet had a chance to work together, and blamed Microsoft for much of the delay, according to Computerworld.

Judge Kollar-Kotelly stated "Although the technical documentation project is complex and novel, it is clear, at least to the Court, that Microsoft is culpable for this inexcusable delay. To be sure, the delay has developed in stages, and at each step Microsoft commendably has been willing to work with the Plaintiffs and the TC to address issues and identify a means of resolving them."

She added "Nevertheless, practically speaking, Microsoft has never complied with" key parts of the ruling. "In addition, there is no reason why the type of documentation finally being created could not have been created from the outset if the necessary resources had been devoted to the project."

Microsoft general counsel replied to the court saying "We will continue to comply fully with the consent decree."

Microsoft found itself on the wrong end of an antitrust case several years ago when a group of states and companies contended that the Redmond-based company was abusing its monopoly status in the operating system market to gain dominance in other markets. The original court ruling ordered Microsoft to be broken into two separate companies, but a later ruling reversed that and instead forced the company to share information that would make it easier for competitors to develop Windows-compatible applications.