Nevadans join crowd of plaintiffs suing Microsoft over antitrust issues

Grace Leong

Tuesday, March 21, 2000 | 10:23 a.m.

Three Las Vegas residents have joined a nationwide class action effort against Microsoft Corp., accusing the software giant of overcharging customers for its Windows 98 software program.

Jim Cullinan, a Microsoft spokesman, said he believes this is the first lawsuit to be filed in Nevada against the Redmond, Wash., company, following U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's Nov. 5 findings of fact in an antitrust lawsuit filed against Microsoft in May 1998 by the U.S. Justice Department and 19 states.

More than 120 class action lawsuits have been filed against the company since the November findings were announced. The suits involve more than 20,000 class members from about 30 states.

The three Las Vegas plaintiffs -- Laird Krotz and Gerard and Rebecca Kemmerer -- allege they were charged $89 instead of $49 for a pre-installed Windows 98 software program in their Intel-based personal computers. They seek to recover damages based on the difference between the alleged monopoly prices they paid and the price they would have paid in a competitive market.

Microsoft's Cullinan disagreed, saying, "The plaintiffs' attorneys got it all wrong. $89 is the retail price for Windows 98, not the cost of a pre-installed program which should be lower because original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) buy Microsoft software in bulk so they can have volume discount."

"The $49 they referred to was a figure we used in a November 1997 retail study to determine how much consumers are willing to pay for Windows 98," he said. "The study found consumers who considered $49 'a steal' also thought $89 'a fair price' for the software program."

The suit said Microsoft engaged in "anti-competitive and unreasonably exclusionary activities," including imposing restrictive requirements that precluded companies from distributing and using non-Microsoft products. Microsoft was able to maintain its monopoly because other software developers haven't been able to create an alternative operating system that could compare to Windows 98.