Mixed Antitrust Messages for Microsoft

The Justice Department on Friday gave Microsoft some mixed messages as to compliance with a 2002 antitrust settlement, saying its IE7 search enhancements were not anti-competitive, yet rebuking it for the same foot-dragging policy it has been accused of in the European Union.

As a result of the non-compliance, the Justice Department has asked to extend its oversight and restrictions on the company until 2009, which Microsoft has voluntarily agreed to. At issue, as in Europe, is the quality of technical documentation to be provided to rivals.

In a filing, the government's complaints sounded much like those of the European Commission -- that the company was not completely following the terms of the settlement, and that it was dragging its feet in remedying those issue.

However, Microsoft seems to be using a similar defense as in the EU, promising more than the settlement entails. The company claims that it would allow technical data to be available after the 2009 expiration, as well as licensing access to Windows source code and the opening of a new lab for testing software.

It is unclear if Friday's events would help further the European Commission's case in having its 497 million euro judgment upheld.

Not all was bad in Friday's court filings for Microsoft. The Justice Department rejected claims by rival search engines led by Google, who called the way search is done in Internet Explorer 7 "anti-competitive." The government sided with Microsoft, saying that the defaults were easily changed and the browser respected the users' and manufacturers' search choices.