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Senate Investigating Microsoft

Judiciary committee looks into anticompetitive practices as company appeals preliminary injunction.

By Elinor Mills and Nancy Weil, IDG News Service   

A Judiciary Committee spokesperson would not comment on whether the group had requested documents from Microsoft, but did say the committee had held a hearing on antitrust issues in which Microsoft was mentioned, according to the report.

%dquotIt%squots no secret that they are investigating Microsoft and talking to [the company] about anticompetitive practices,%dquot Press Secretary Cynthia Berman is quoted as saying. %dquotAnd we do know that the Judiciary Committee has asked Microsoft to provide it with documents about the way (Microsoft) conducts its business.%dquot

Word of the investigations followed by hours the filing of an appeal by Microsoft of U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson%squots preliminary injunction issued last month, which ordered the software monolith to unbundle its Internet Explorer browser from Windows 95, arguing that the judge did not follow proper procedures.

Microsoft contends that the company was not allowed to respond to allegations from the U.S. Department of Justice, which requested the preliminary injunction as part of an ongoing investigation into the alleged anticompetitive practices. The Justice Department is arguing that Microsoft violated a 1995 consent decree by requiring PC vendors to accept IE bundled with Windows 95.

%dquotThe District Court deprived Microsoft of the opportunity to argue that a preliminary injunction is inappropriate in the present procedural context, and to present evidence and legal argument concerning such issues as irreparable harm, the balance of the hardships, and the public interest,%dquot argues the appeal. A copy is available on Microsoft%squots site (see link at right).

The appeal further contends that the injunction was issued without an evidentiary hearing, which violates federal rules of civil procedure. The arguments in the appeal mostly had already been made by Microsoft in other court documents.

The preliminary injunction was unorthodox because it gave more relief than the Justice Department originally asked for in its petition, which asked that Microsoft show why it should not be held in contempt for violating the consent decree.

A hearing on the appeal is scheduled for April 21.

Microsoft agreed earlier this month to offer PC vendors a version of Windows 95 that does not include the browser. However, that agreement did not end the ongoing Justice Department investigation.