A federal judge on Monday rejected class-action status for more than 60 consumer lawsuits pending against Microsoft, but allowed a more limited lawsuit alleging overpricing to proceed.
According to the ruling issued by U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz in Maryland, Microsoft would not have to face a class-action consumer lawsuit because it would be difficult to identify a group of plaintiffs who would be considered typical buyers of Microsoft"s software.
The ruling, which would make it more difficult for plaintiffs" lawyers to extract multimillion-dollar settlements from the software giant, comes after Microsoft settled its antitrust case with the federal government and most states in the past few months.
The consumer lawsuits argue that Microsoft had abused its monopoly and overpriced its software.
"This is a significant step in resolving a number of the legal issues facing the company," said Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake.