Posted on 09/07/2001 7:48:53 PM PDT by HAL9000
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two of the biggest states party to the government's antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. warned on Friday they might pursue their own sanctions against the software giant if they conclude the U.S. Justice Department is going too easy on the company.A day after government attorneys said they had dropped the idea of pushing to break up Microsoft, New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer and California Attorney General Bill Lockyer insisted that the government take a close look at Microsoft's new Windows XP operating system before proposing a new remedy torein in the company.
Spitzer and Lockyer, among the most outspoken of the 18 attorneys general in the case, issued a statement demanding that Windows XP ``receive close scrutiny in arriving at a judicially ordered remedy.''
The two attorneys general said they ``will, if necessary to protect the public, press for remedies that go beyond those requested by the Department of Justice.''
District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who was recently assigned to the case, is expected to hold hearings within the next several months to determine what sanctions should be imposed on Microsoft to prevent future antitrust violations.
A federal appeals court ruled in June that Microsoft abused its monopoly over personal computer operating systems but left several issues to be resolved by the lower court.
Justice Department officials have said they will ask the court to impose restrictions on Microsoft's business tactics that would affect all of the firm's products. But they have declined to single out specific products.
But a source close to the states said Spitzer and Lockyer are worried that the Justice Department is not focused enough on how to stop Microsoft from using Windows XP to quash competition.
``It is imperative that Microsoft not have another opportunity to use Windows XP to suppress competition in emerging Internet areas,'' the two attorneys general said in their statement.
Antitrust experts said there may be further tension between the Justice Department and the 18 states as the case goes forward.
Justice Department officials ``are going to have a hard time herding all the cats,'' said Robert Litan, a former department official now withthe Brookings Institution. ``It will not surprise me if some states don't go along.''
On Thursday the department and state attorneys general said in unison that they had abandoned their earlier pursuit of a Microsoft breakup, along with an unresolved claim that the company illegally tied its Internet Explorer browser to its Windows operating system.
Government lawyers said the decision is aimed at streamlining the case so the government can get court sanctions against the company as quickly as possible. They said they will instead ask the court to impose restrictions on Microsoft's business tactics.
A spokeswoman for the Justice Department had no immediate comment on the statement by Spitzer and Lockyer.
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