US Government Sued Microsoft for establishing Monopoly (1998)

United States v. Microsoft was a set of consolidated civil actions filed against Microsoft Corporation pursuant to the Sherman Antitrust Act on May 18, 1998 by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and 20 U.S. states. The plaintiffs alleged that Microsoft abused monopoly power on Intel-based personal computers in its handling of operating system sales and web browserInternet Explorer (IE) web browser software with its Microsoft Windows operating system. Bundling them together is alleged to have been responsible for Microsoft's victory in the browser wars as every Windows user had a copy of Internet Explorer. It was further alleged that this unfairly restricted the market for competing web browsers (such as Netscape NavigatorOpera) that were slow to download over a modem or had to be purchased at a store. Microsoft stated that the merging of Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer were now the same product and were inextricably linked together and those consumers were now getting all the benefits of IE for free. Those who opposed Microsoft's position countered that the browser was still a distinct and separate product which did not need to be tied to the operating system. sales. The issue central to the case was whether Microsoft was allowed to bundle its or

 In my opinion, the charge against the Microsoft is unreasonable. The way Microsoft merged Windows and Internet Explorer and gave it for free actually benefits the users who otherwise, had to buy from other browsing companies. It has nothing to do against Sherman Antitrust Act. The plaintiffs stated that the Windows and IE are separate product and can’t be monopolized, however, they have no strong reasons on what ground they are separate. Also, there are other companies too who actually merge these products like Mac and Safari, BeOS and NetPositive.