Microsoft dodges breakup
- Added:
- Jun 28, 2001
The appeal court partially upheld Jackson's earlier ruling that Microsoft acted as an illegal monopoly by integrating its Windows and Explorer software, but ruled that Jackson's remedy - the proposed breakup - should be reviewed by a new judge. A statement issued by the court stated: ‘We have drastically altered the scope of Microsoft's liability and it is for the District Court in the first instance to determine the propriety of a specific remedy for the limited ground of liability which we have upheld'.
In layman's terms, this is a victory for Microsoft over Jackson.
The latest ruling rapped Judge Jackson personally for his handling of the case, claiming that Jackson's conduct ‘seriously tainted the proceedings before the District Court and called into question the integrity of the judicial process'. The court's corrosive judgement on Jackson appears to echo an all-out attack on the judge, launched by Microsoft lawyers back in November.
In a 150-page submission Microsoft questioned Judge Jackson's impartiality, pointing to his interviews with the New York Times during the course of the trial - although the article was published after the trial - and his subsequent speaking tour. Microsoft also argued in the brief that it did not receive due process of law and that the trial was conducted hastily and therefore unfairly. At the time, Peter Willis, competitions specialist lawyer at Taylor Joynson Garrett observed: “The attack on the judge was quite personal and quite vicious.”
The case, which was guaranteed to cause controversy whatever the outcome, became the subject of renewed speculation following the change of administration at the White House, with the Bush government widely believed to be more sympathetic to Microsoft.
To many, this latest twist will come as no surprise. In December, our own Louise Carroll predicted: ‘2001 will see the litigation see-saw that was the Microsoft anti-trust trial end, with the tech giant being let off with barely a wrist slap under the Bush administration'.