• PC World
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WASHINGTON, D.C.--Reaffirming its stance that the antitrust settlement reached with the U.S. Department of Justice and nine states is fair, an attorney for Microsoft told a federal judge Friday that the nonsettling states are not entitled to remedies that go beyond the current settlement proposal.

Attorney John Warden said that in the hearing for the nine holdout states and the District of Columbia scheduled for March 11, Microsoft will take the position that the proposed settlement reached with the DOJ and other states is the only appropriate proceeding.

"We don't think it's appropriate for an end run to be done around that [settlement]," Warden told the judge.

Deconsolidated Case

In a February 1 ruling, District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued an order to "deconsolidate" the federal case led by the DOJ and the case that includes state plaintiffs who are not participating in the settlement.

Microsoft, the DOJ, and the nine settling states met in Kollar-Kotelly's courtroom Friday to discuss details of the parties' joint status report that was made public on Thursday. Kollar-Kotelly requested that the parties address specific issues of concern in filing their motions for entry (or support statements) of the settlement, which are due by February 27.

The DOJ must address whether this antitrust settlement should be treated differently from others because liabilities (the damage Microsoft did to consumers) have been assessed by an appeals court, giving this case unusual circumstances, the judge said. The DOJ must also state how it has complied with the provisions of the Tunney Act, a federal law that governs antitrust settlements, and must respond to specific public comments claiming the DOJ has not been in compliance.

In its motion for entry, Microsoft must defend its Tunney Act compliance against allegations that the company did not reveal to the court any and all contact it had with employees of the U.S. government, which is a condition stated in the act.

Door Is Open

The judge agreed to the parties' proposal that a hearing regarding the settlement be held during the week of March 4, although she declined to rule on their request that the hearing not be evidentiary in nature. "I will decide if I see a need for evidence on a particular issue," she said. "I'm leaving the door open."

The parties and the judge will meet again on Feb. 15, either in court or via conference call, to further work out the details and scheduling of the early March hearing.

The parties were not questioned about potential modifications to the proposed settlement, a possibility that the DOJ and Microsoft, in their joint status report, said they are considering.