Iowa Court May Order Microsoft Refunds

dowobeha writes: "The Des Moines Register is reporting that thousands of Windows 98 users in Iowa could get $40 refunds from Microsoft. The Iowa Supreme Court has found the big boys from Redmond guilty of price fixing in violation of a 1976 Iowa law. According to the report, this is the first antitrust ruling in any state that favors 'indirect purchasers' (regular consumers who got Windows preinstalled on their newly purchased computer) rather than "direct purchasers" (manufacturers who license Windows to distribute on new machines)."

Comments

Consumers, not states, brought the case

[baronben]

Its interesting that in this case, it was consumners, the artical mentiones a vending company and various other consumers that sued microsoft for price fixing, and not the states suing microsoft for anti-trust violations. This might be an interesting route to go if the State's case somehow gets dismissed or otherwised redered void.

It would be interesting to see how this would work in other states, but it would be difficult seeing as the case was based on state, not federal, law.

Iowa and Political Power

[namespan]

Iowa is an interesting state. It's got a relatively small population, which at one point was even the fastest shrinking population of any state in the US -- this in a time of urban sprawl and growth mentality. This could have made it politically marginal, but by cleverly arranging early caucuses there, they're suddenly important.

One wonders if this isn't another realization of the power of precedent setting, and perhaps a manifestation of that rumored Midwestern common sense. :)