ractices designed to maintain its monopoly in personal computer operating systems and to extend that monopoly to internet browsing software on May 18, 1998. Twenty state Attorneys General and the District of Columbia filed a similar action. They alleged Microsoft illegally abused its "Windows" monopoly power to curtail and eliminate competition, force computer manufacturers to take its separate Internet "browser" and other applications, and deny consumers who buy personal computers the benefits of a free, open and competitive market. "This action will protect innovation by ensuring that anyone who develops a software program will have a fair opportunity to compete in the marketplace," said Joel I. Klein, assistant attorney general of the Antitrust Division. "The lawsuit we filed today seeks to put an end to Microsoft's unlawful campaign to eliminate competition, deter innovation, and restrict consumer choice. In essence, what Microsoft has been doing, through a wide variety of illegal business practices, is leveraging its Windows operating system monopoly to force its other software products on consumers. Inventors and investors cannot and will not develop and market innovative software programs if they know that Microsoft can use its Windows monopoly to block the distribution of their programs and to force consumers to buy Microsoft's competing products." 7The reality, however, is that one of antitrust actions major uses has been to penalize successful competitors. Sometimes the suits are brought by federal enforcers of antitrust laws. More often they are brought by bitter losers in the competitive process. According to Georgetown University's Steven Salop, a top antitrust official in the Carter administration's Federal Trade Commission, and New York University's Lawrence J. White, chief economist in the Justice Department's Antitrust Division under Ronald Reagan, the second most common kind of private antitrust suit is one broug...
