Microsoft put more of its legal troubles to rest
this week by settling class action suits with Arizona and Massachusetts.
Redmond latest settlement involved a class action lawsuit
alleging that Microsoft had violated Arizona’s antitrust and unfair
competition laws. The settlement, approved by a court on June 28, 2004,
requires Microsoft to administer a $104.6 million voucher program for software similar
to programs already in place in other states. Members of the class — anyone who
lived in Arizona and bought Microsoft’s operating system, productivity suite,
spreadsheet or word processing software during a certain time frame — can use the vouchers toward
purchase of hardware and software.
If members of the class don’t use up the entire $104.6 million, Microsoft
will split the difference, pocketing half and giving the other half to
public school districts in the state with a preponderance of lower-income
students. The schools will get the money in the form of more vouchers.
The Massachusetts settlement followed the same model, with the total hit
to Microsoft capped at $34 million.
Microsoft settled similar class actions with the states of North
Carolina, Minnesota, North
Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas,
Tennessee and the District of Columbia.
The exact value of individual vouchers in the two most recent suits
wasn’t disclosed. As a result of a similar suit in California, consumers got vouchers worth from $5 to $29 toward hardware or software.