The Anti-Trust Case Against Microsoft

Since 1990, a battle has raged in United States courts between the


United States


government and the Microsoft Corporation out of Redmond, Washington,


headed by Bill


Gates. What is at stake is money. The federal government maintains that


Microsoft's


monopolistic practices are harmful to United States citizens, creating


higher prices and


potentially downgrading software quality,   and should therefore be


stopped, while


Microsoft and its supporters claim that they are not breaking any laws,


and are just doing


good business.


Microsoft's antitrust problems began for them in the early months


of 1990(Check


1), when the Federal Trade Commission began investigating them for


possible violations


of the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts,(Maldoom 1) which are designed


to stop the


formation of monopolies. The investigation continued on for the next three


years without


resolve, until Novell, maker of DR-DOS, a competitor of Microsoft's


MS-DOS, filed a


complaint with the Competition Directorate of the European Commission in


June of 1993.


(Maldoom 1) Doing this stalled the investigations even more, until finally


in August of


1993, (Check 1)the Federal Trade Commission decided to hand the case over


to the


Department of Justice. The Department of Justice moved quickly, with Anne


K.


Bingaman, head of the Antitrust Division of the DOJ, leading the


way.(Check 1) The case


was finally ended on July 15, 1994, with Microsoft signing a consent


settlement.(Check 1)


The settlement focused on Microsoft's selling practices with


computer


manufacturers. Up until now, Microsoft would sell MS-DOS and Microsoft's


other


operating systems to original equipment manufacturers (OEM's) at a 60%


discount if that


OEM agreed...