The Microsoft Case: Antitrust, High Technology, and Consumer Welfare

by William H. Page, John E. Lopatka

Overview

In 1998 the United States Department of Justice and state antitrust agencies charged that Microsoft was monopolizing the market for personal computer operating systems. More than ten years later, the case is still the defining antitrust litigation of our era. William H. Page and John E. Lopatka's The Microsoft Case contributes to the debate over the future of antitrust policy by examining the implications of the litigation from the perspective of consumer welfare.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226644646
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	04/15/2009
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	963,788
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 2.80(d)

About the Author

William H. Page is the Marshall M. Criser Eminent Scholar at the University of Florida’s Levin School of Law.

John E. Lopatka is the A. Robert Noll Distinguished Professor of Law at the Pennsylvania State University’s Dickinson School of Law.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

1 Origins 1

Ideological Sources of Antimonopolization Law 2

Microsoft's Predecessors: The Public Monopolization Case 4

Microsoft's Beginnings: A Post-Chicago Convergence 19

2 Decisions 33

Chronology 34

The Liability Decisions 35

The Remedial Decisions 70

The Follow-on Private Litigation 78

The European Commission Decision 80

3 Markets 85

Two Systems of Belief about Operating Systems and Middleware 86

Network Effects and Related Economic Concepts 91

Defining Software Markets 96

4 Practices I: Integration 115

A Preliminary Skirmish 119

Integration on Trial 123

Rethinking and Redefining Integration under Sherman Act Standards 129

5 Practices II: The Market Division Proposal, Exclusive Contracts, and Java 167

The Market Division Proposal 168

The Exclusive Contracts 184

Java 191

6 Remedies 203

The Goals of Antitrust Remedies 204

Structural Remedies 205

Conduct Remedies 212

Damage Remedies 224

Aftermath 243

Notes 249

Index 331

Editorial Reviews

"[This book] provides a sophisticated understanding of the antitrust prosecution of the U.S. Justice Department mounted against the Microsoft computer company in 1998. The authors incisively analyze the leading decisions and remedial orders from some 150 opinions. . . . Economists, law and economics experts, lawyers, judges, and historians will find the analytical theories to be sound, innovative, and presented quite accessibly."

Business History Review - Tony A. Freyer

[Page and Lopatka] present a detailed summary of the parties' strategies and of the legal decisions (primarily the federal case); sketch the economics (network effects, path dependencies); and analyze various proposed remedies (conduct, structure). The book also includes an excellent, detailed summary of the US legal issues in the Department of Justice prosecution of Microsoft. . . . Highly recommended.”

Choice

"This book will become the gold standard for analysis of the monopolization cases against Microsoft. Page and Lopatka place the litigation in an important historical context with a detailed connection to law and public policy. No serious student of law or economic policy should go without reading it."

Thomas C. Arthur

This book provides a thorough discussion of the law and economics of the Microsoft case, which consumed the time and energy of numerous lawyers and economists, as direct participants in the litigation or in providing real-time commentary as the case progressed. The Microsoft case is unique among high- profile antitrust lawsuits in terms of the level of scrutiny given to it during the course of the litigation.  This book captures many of the perspectives offered on the case as well as the authors’ own very sensible conclusions on the lessons of the case.

Keith Hylton

An excellent account of the facts and theory of the government’s case against Microsoft and how it fits into the American antitrust tradition.  The authors present a view of the Microsoft litigation that will keep the controversy over that decision and its legitimacy in the spotlight.  A very well written and well argued book.”—Herbert Hovenkamp, Ben and Dorothy Willie Chair, The University of Iowa College of Law

Herbert Hovenkamp

The first book to provide a clear and careful exposition of the facts and contending economic arguments of the government’s case against Microsoft, it is a must read for all those interested in the trends in competition, technology, and the law.

E. Thomas Sullivan

"The Microsoft Case is far more than a source. It's also a coherent analysis by two economically literate legal scholars who are obviously doing their best to present an unbiased account."

Regulation - David R. Henderson

The Microsoft Case is far more than a source. It's also a coherent analysis by two economically literate legal scholars who are obviously doing their best to present an unbiased account.

— David R. Henderson

Regulation

[This book] provides a sophisticated understanding of the antitrust prosecution of the U.S. Justice Department mounted against the Microsoft computer company in 1998. The authors incisively analyze the leading decisions and remedial orders from some 150 opinions. . . . Economists, law and economics experts, lawyers, judges, and historians will find the analytical theories to be sound, innovative, and presented quite accessibly.

— Tony A. Freyer

Business History Review