Vista Capable case loses class action status
Microsoft has succeeded in a bid to throw out the class action status of the Vista Capable lawsuit. The ruling means each person claiming they were misled by the marketing scheme must launch a separate legal case.
Judge Marsha Pechman said the class action ruling did not have any bearing on the validity of the lawsuit itself. She also rejected a Microsoft request for a summary judgment in its favor. That also doesn’t indicate a likely outcome; it simply means there is enough of a dispute that it can proceed to trial.
It was Pechman who originally granted the class action status a year ago. The status is designed for cases where many people have been affected by the same set of circumstances. People can join an existing case simply by showing they share the circumstances rather than having to prove their individual case. The court will hear the case of one, or at most a few individuals, but the verdict can apply to everyone involved in the case. In the event of successful lawsuits this can mean massive payouts for the defendant.
When granting the class action status, Pechman told the plaintiffs they would need to prove that everyone involved had been wronged in a specific manner, namely that the marketing scheme had caused them to pay more for a ‘Vista Capable’ computer than they otherwise would have done.
In this week’s ruling, Pechman said the plaintiffs had failed to give conclusive evidence that this had been a widespread effect. She said much of the evidence was anecdotal and that it was unclear what effect the campaign had had on prices, particularly during holiday seasons when stores ran sales.
Microsoft now simply faces six individual claims, assuming those people continue with their legal action. The court would rule individually and can consider other legal questions such as whether people should get compensation to cover the cost of getting a machine capable of running the full edition of Vista.
It’s perfectly possible that the verdicts could vary across the six cases. If most or all claims are successful it could still trigger more widespread lawsuits from people in similar circumstances.
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