Question

In the US v. Microsoft case over it being an monopoly what were the evidences provided by the FTC on the market power possessed by microsoft

Answer 1

In the case US Vs Microsoft, Microsoft was declared Monopolist on November 5th, 1999 by MSFT. They declared that Microsoft has a monopoly in the PC operating system and also affect consumers through anticompetitive behavior.

• Microsoft has monopoly power in the market for Personal Computer (PC) operating systems
  • Microsoft share is this market was very large
  • This market share is protected by high entry barrier
  • Hence this resulted in any other alternative available to the customer to exercise the right of choice/option
  • Though Microsoft contested that there's been a significant decrease in its monopoly by the entry of other players (Linux operating system) but they still maintained very high share.
• Microsoft engaged in exclusionary practices
• Conduct of Microsoft was deterrent to innovation &
  • The Netscape threat, Microsoft resort to anticompetitive to increase the market share of its IE
  • Microsoft spent money to increase the share of IE
  • For example, Microsoft decided which browser would be featured in Compaq PC, IE
• This harmed consumers