LV judge dismisses suit against Microsoft

Microsoft Corp. last week won dismissal of a lawsuit filed by three Las Vegas residents against the software giant alleging it overcharged consumers for its Windows 98 software program.

Three Las Vegas plaintiffs -- Laird Krotz and Gerard and Rebecca Kemmerer -- in March joined a nationwide class action effort against Microsoft, alleging they were charged $89 instead of $49 for a pre-installed Windows 98 software program in their Intel-based personal computers. They sought to recover damages based on the difference between the alleged monopoly prices they paid and the price they would have paid in a competitive market.

But Clark County District Judge Gene Porter dismissed the complaint.

At June 19 hearing, Porter ruled that amendments made to Nevada law in 1999 -- which allowed consumers to pursue antitrust action against manufacturers with whom they didn't deal directly -- didn't apply to the plaintiffs because they had bought Microsoft operating system software in 1998, before the amendments took effect on Oct. 1.

"According to my intepretation of the Supreme Court decisions, you did not have standing to bring an action," Porter said during the hearing. "And the only way you're going to get standing is if a state lets you have standing by legislative enactment. And Nevada did not let you have standing until Oct. 1, 1999. So, if you bought it Oct. 2, I think you can sue them ... If you bought it before that, you can't."

Microsoft said 139 similar class action lawsuits have been filed to date in 36 states and the District of Columbia.

Two were dismissed, the one in Nevada and one in Oregon. An Oregon state judge said he based his decision on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that consumers can't sue a company under antitrust laws if they didn't buy a product directly from the company.

archive