States want court to extend Microsoft oversight

Sep 11, 2007, 22:09 GMT

Washington/San Francisco - A group of US states led by California on Tuesday asked a Washington court to extend official anti-trust supervision of Microsoft for five years to 2012.

The filing was made under the 2002 anti-trust settlement reached after the government sued Microsoft for using its market clout to drive Internet browser pioneer Netscape out of the market, leaving its own Internet Explorer as the main tool consumers had to access the internet.

The antitrust settlement is due to expire in November, meaning that Microsoft would no longer have to report regularly on its compliance with the settlement.

Stephen Houck, an attorney representing California, said an extension was necessary to ensure that Microsoft's new Vista operating system continues to comply with the antitrust settlement and that Microsoft does not unfairly crush competition to its Windows operating system monopoly.

'Microsoft continues to have a stranglehold on the two products, Windows and IE, that almost all consumers use for accessing these Web services and applications,' Houck told US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.

An extension would 'make sure' Microsoft can't 'abuse its still considerable market power to undermine' what it 'considers emerging technologies' that threaten the monopoly, Houck said.

Microsoft said it was 'premature' to comment on the matter since it was only notified about the request last week.

Besides California, the states requesting extension of the decree are Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts and Minnesota.