Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday it will pay New Mexico consumers as much as $31.5 million to settle a class action claiming the world's largest software maker had overcharged for software. The settlement, which received preliminary approval by New Mexico's First Judicial District Court in late July, will allow eligible class members to receive vouchers from Microsoft that can be used to buy any computer hardware or software from any manufacturer.
The settlement is the latest since Redmond, Washington- based Microsoft settled class-actions with Massachusetts and Arizona in June. Microsoft has been working to put antitrust claims behind it, having settled such suits in more than a dozen states and the District of Columbia over the past two years, for a total of more than $1.5 billion. As with the Massachusetts settlement and other such deals it has struck across the United States, Microsoft said it will provide half the value of any unclaimed vouchers to certain New Mexico school districts.
View: Consumer Class Action Settlement (Currently New Mexico is not on the list)
News source: Reuters
The settlement is the latest since Redmond, Washington- based Microsoft settled class-actions with Massachusetts and Arizona in June. Microsoft has been working to put antitrust claims behind it, having settled such suits in more than a dozen states and the District of Columbia over the past two years, for a total of more than $1.5 billion. As with the Massachusetts settlement and other such deals it has struck across the United States, Microsoft said it will provide half the value of any unclaimed vouchers to certain New Mexico school districts.
View: Consumer Class Action Settlement (Currently New Mexico is not on the list) News source: Reuters
Cont...
Besides exposing plans for a Sudeki sequel, the ad also appeared to reveal two other new games: The Final Option and Dragon Wars. No further information was revealed for those titles, although the listing also mentions Codename Avalon, Climax's previously announced mystery project for next-generation consoles.
Given Sudeki's lackluster critical reception, many industry watchers wondered if Climax will stick with its plans to a sequel. Reps for Climax did not respond to inquiries as of press time.
Where do I sign up?
I went ahead and updated the post with the appropriate link, but Microsoft hasn't updated their site yet to reflect the settlement.
It is stimulating the technology market, which is good for them since they are in it. Also they are giving (or say they are giving) something to schools, which makes them look good to the public.
I dont see dealers getting sued left and right for ****ing MSRP markups?!
You can't. However, welcome to the US court system. You can sue anyone for anything. And right now Microsoft is the target of choice for money extortion. From what I understand they sue because someone else recieved a lower price than they paid and so they are pissed about it. In the end, it becomes cheaper for Microstf to settle than to go the full court battle. For two reasons, first the lawyers will eat up millions in unearned charges on both sides. Secondly, people will forget about a settlment far quicker than if they got unlucky and had the *ahem* honest judicial system rule against them. In the end it doesn't cost them much since only about 10% of those leigible will bother to redeem vouchers, and any remaining balance after a set number of YEARS, will go into the school system where the "administrators" will quickly sweep it up before it get anywhere near any level where it could actually help the schools.
Welcome to life in the states.
That's pretty harsh, but I'm glad to see at least MS isnt *too* effected by this. Hopefully they will recover from all the recent things that have been going on in terms of AntiTrust/Monoplies/Overprcing and whatnot.
Srry to hear about the systems down there
Out of curiousity, does the judging and overall working of the "system" dirmatically change once a new president is in office? or is tehre any public/private relavance to that at all?
This is what we like to call a monopoly. If Microsoft was right, then they wouldn't keep settling.
Oh. Okay. We did have a bunch of, you know, PROGRAMMERS who worked on this and need a salary, but you know what? **** em.
Nice try.
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