Class-action lawyers suing Microsoft will next week try to expand their litigation against the world's largest software company by claiming damages for worldwide consumers.
The lawsuit, led by some of the biggest names in US class action cases, will present an innovative argument that Microsoft is liable for damages under international competition law.
However, the lawyers leading the global class action concede there is no case law to support their claim, which will be filed in the district court in Maryland.
According to a draft of the lawsuit, they will cite the growing number of national competition laws as a basis for suing Microsoft for its global sales.
The lawsuit will also claim support from a mixture of United Nations statements of principles on competition, and recommendations by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
"International prohibitions against anti-competitive commercial activity have become so prevalent that they must be deemed to have risen to the level of the law of nations," the lawsuit argues.
Microsoft condemned the class action lawsuits as groundless. Mr Jim Cullinan, a Microsoft spokesman, said: "This is just legal posturing to see who can get the most legal fees. It is not about protecting consumers.
"They say it was only when they read over the transcript of the trial and the media coverage that they knew they had to do this," he said. "It is not about a bunch of consumers calling them to say they have been overcharged."
The global class action is led by Mr Michael Hausfeld, who successfully sued the world's largest vitamins producers for price-fixing, as well as Swiss and German companies for Holocaust compensation. It is jointly led by Mr Stanley Chesley, who successfully sued Dow Corning over breast implants and American Home Products over diet drugs.
Earlier this week, Microsoft's attorneys met in court the class action lawyers who filed an expanded lawsuit on behalf of US consumers. The expanded lawsuit broadens the scope of the US class action by extending it beyond Microsoft's Windows operating software. The litigation now seeks damages for customers who bought popular applications such as word processing, financial spreadsheets and the Office business suite of software.
At the heart of the class action claims are Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's factual findings in the government's historic antitrust case in November.
Citing those findings, the class action lawyers claim that Microsoft overcharged for Windows by $40 a copy. Microsoft argues Judge Jackson's conclusions will be overturned on appeal, claiming many were erroneous and unjustified.
