DOJ and Microsoft reach antitrust consent decree — ending the landmark case without a breakup
The Department of Justice under Attorney General John Ashcroft reached a consent decree with Microsoft that settled the landmark antitrust case without forcing a corporate breakup. The settlement required Microsoft to share its application programming interfaces with third-party companies and installed a compliance committee with access to Microsoft's systems. Critics, including several state attorneys general, argued the settlement was too lenient. The case is now studied in law schools as a defining example of the tension between innovation policy and antitrust enforcement in the technology industry.
Source: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/microsoft/long-antitrust-saga-ends-for-microsoft/
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