Microsoft, DOJ unveil settlement report
Published: 08 Feb 2002 07:31 GMT
The Justice Department and Microsoft on Thursday released a report summarising public comments received on an antitrust settlement deal cut in November.
In the report filed with U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, the Justice Department said it had received 30,000 responses, 1,250 unrelated to the case. Roughly half the comments were against the settlement, 7,500 were in favour of the deal, and 7,000 expressed no sentiment either way.
Microsoft, the Justice Department and nine states agreed to the settlement in early November, with nine other states and the District of Columbia choosing to continue with litigation.
Last week, Kollar-Kotelly ordered the two parties to file the joint status report, also asking if they planned to make changes to the settlement based on public response. Sixty days of public comment concluded on 28 January as mandated by the Tunney Act, a Nixon-era law that requires antitrust settlements be in the public interest.
"There's nothing routine about this case," said Rich Gray, a Silicon Valley-based lawyer closely following the trial. "She basically put them on notice last week that she expects them to take into account the public comment."
The settling parties are scheduled to appear before Kollar-Kotelly on Friday in a meeting that could signal how she regards the settlement proposal. The judge has the option of accepting, accepting with conditions, modifying, or rejecting the proposed deal. But that decision is not expected for at least a month or more.
"That's assuming the judge gives any clear signals," Gray said. "She may not."
Think it's all over? The antitrust case against Microsoft can still go back the to Court of Appeals, and then there's the European Commission's investigation... See ZDNet UK's DoJ/Microsoft News Section for the latest headlines.
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