A Californian court will rule this month on a deal under which Microsoft will pay $1,1-billion to 13-million of the state’s consumers and businesses.
The agreement, in settlement of claims that the company abused its dominant position and overcharged for software, was struck late on Friday night. Microsoft, which faces similar claims in a number of other states, did not admit any wrongdoing.
The payments will be made to Californian customers who bought Microsoft’s Windows operating system or Excel or Word programs between February 18, 1995 and December 15, 2001.
They will be in the form of vouchers which can be used to buy computers and software either from Microsoft or its rivals.
”We believe that this agreement makes a significant step forward to resolve our antitrust legal issues,” Microsoft’s general counsel, Brad Smith, said at the weekend.
Although the main beneficiaries of the scheme — where voucher payments range from $5 for each copy of Word bought during the period in question to $26 for Excel — are likely to be businesses, the deal could also benefit some of the state’s most disadvantaged schoolchildren.
Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will give two-thirds of any unclaimed settlement proceeds to California’s neediest schools to be used to buy computer equipment and related services.
Microsoft will keep the other third of residual funds.
It will also pay the claimants’s legal fees and for the administration of the voucher programme.
It has agreed to publicise the settlement by email to registered clients and take out newspaper advertisements. It will set up a website to allow users to acquire claim forms.
The first California lawsuit which became the basis of the class action settled on Friday night was set in motion in February 1999. – Guardian Unlimited Â