Washington, DC- Ed Black, President and CEO of the Computer & Communications Industry Association released the following statement regarding Microsoft Corporation’s Petition for Rehearing by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit:
“Microsoft’s motion has virtually no foundation, borders on frivolous, leads one to believe they have little purpose other than to delay circumscription of their anticompetitive behavior while they leverage their existing monopolies into new markets. Microsoft’s petition asks the Circuit Court to reconsider their own determination that the District Court was not “clearly erroneous” in its evaluation of conflicting testimony with regard to the commingling of browser and operating system software. In fact the entire motion rests on the testimony of their executive, James Allchin, whose testimony was repeatedly shown to be not credible during the course of the trial.
Furthermore, Microsoft’s concern over computer manufacturer’s ability to remove Internet Explorer code from Windows demonstrates that their “concession” of last week — to permit consumers to remove IE from their desktop — was meaningless. Microsoft will accept nothing less than exclusive control over the OEM distribution channel for software.
With this action, Microsoft continues to make evident that it has no intention of coming to terms with the consequences of its unlawful behavior, now condemned by the most respected Federal Circuit Court in the nation, and will use any legal maneuver at its disposal to forestall the inevitable conclusion of this legal process. This filing is an excellent example of the type of tactics we expect Microsoft to continually employ to frustrate and obstruct any conduct remedies, and demonstrates why many have concluded that only structural remedies can be effective against an unrepentant, committed violator of antitrust laws.”