Microsoft Corp. announced Monday that it settled a class-action lawsuit brought by customers in Minnesota who claimed the company overcharged them.
The company said final terms of the settlement were still being worked out. The deal will be presented to the judge in the case in early summer, company spokeswoman Stacy Drake said.
The settlement interrupted a jury trial that was expected to last several more weeks. Attorneys for the plaintiffs had said they were seeking as much as $505 million.
A spokesman for the plaintiff's attorneys said he had not been told about the settlement.
Microsoft had previously settled with nine states and Washington, D.C., paying out a total of $1.5 billion. Cases in 16 other states were dismissed.
A case brought by the federal government ended with a settlement in 2001 that found that Microsoft used its operating system monopoly to strong-arm competitors. The trial judge ordered a breakup of Microsoft, but a federal court overruled the decision. It did, however, uphold the judgment that Microsoft held a monopoly with Windows.
Source:
startribune.com/stories/535/4730066.html
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