An industry group backed by some of Microsoft's top competitors has sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice claiming the software maker has already violated terms of a proposed antitrust settlement deal that it reached with the federal government.
ProComp, or the Project to Promote Competition and Innovation in the Digital Age, said in a letter Wednesday that it has identified at least six violations on Microsoft's behalf.
Ruling Awaited
Microsoft reached an agreement with the DOJ and later nine state attorneys general who were also plaintiffs in the ongoing antitrust suit. While a judge has yet to sign off on that deal, Microsoft has already begun implementing some of the changes required in that agreement. In late August, it filed a document with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that summarized how it is complying with the proposed consent decree.
At the core of its compliance effort was the release of Service Pack 1 for Windows XP, a set of product updates and security fixes for the company's operating system. ProComp argued that the 30MB download is not "readily accessible to consumers," and is "non-intuitive" when it came to obtaining and installing on a PC.
The proposed settlement, as well as a request for stricter sanctions by the attorneys general of nine other states plus the District of Columbia, is still pending. Presiding Federal Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly concluded hearings on the matter in June and is expected to rule on both proposals this fall.
News source: Yahoo! News
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