Microsoft
United States v. Microsoft
Case Summary
On May 18, 1998, in United States v. Microsoft, the United States Department of Justice and 20 states alleged that Microsoft acted as a monopoly in its bundling of their Microsoft Windows operating system and their Internet Explorer web browser software. This made Microsoft the leader in web browser services and software production company's by including for "free" what other company's were trying to sell for a profit. By bundling Internet Explorer into the Windows operating system they essentially gave users no choice but to use their web browser or purchase a competitor's at an additional cost. Since Microsoft sold Internet Explorer for other operating systems such as Macintosh it was claimed that they created a monopoly amongst competing web browser software companies.
Case Facts
The Supreme Court defines monopoly power as "the power to control prices or exclude competition." United States v. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. After the Federal Trade Commission closed their initial investigation, the Department of Justice started its own investigation in which it was settled that Microsoft would not tie other products into their operating systems but was allowed to include additional features to prevent a monopoly. Within the next two years Microsoft acquired Spyglass, Inc. and released a modified version of their original web browser Mosaic, now called Internet Explorer, with Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95. On November 5, 1999 the presiding judge stated that Microsoft's dominance of the operating system market constituted as a monopoly and that their actions to crush rivals constituted as a monopoly.
Issue
In May of 1998, twenty U.S. states and the Department of Justice sued Microsoft for illegally thwarting competition in order to extend its monopoly. Another issue concerning Microsoft's violation of the previous 1994 decree, in which it was found that they had threatened to...
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