What did the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals say about bundling?
The appeals court, in a decision that the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review, held that the way Microsoft bundled its Internet Explorer into Windows violated Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. That’s a law preventing companies from using predatory tactics to defend a monopoly. A wide variety of business practices can run afoul of Section 2, including everything from forcing business partners to sign exclusive contracts to predatory pricing. In this case, seven appellate judges unanimously found that “the commingling of code [had] an anticompetitive effect” because it deterred personal-computer makers from installing Netscape Communication Corp.’s (now a part of America Online) browser after it was introduced in 1994. Three weeks after the ruling, on July 18, Microsoft petitioned the court to reconsider this part of its conclusions. The company acknowledged that the commingling finding “might be read to suggest that [computer makers] should be given the option of removing so
