Californian computer company lodges antitrust suit against Microsoft

Tangent Computer, a computer services and hardware company based in Burlingame, California has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft. The lawsuit filed on February 14, 2006 claims that Microsoft continues to breach federal antitrust laws.

Tangent alleges that Microsoft fosters tactics "to prevent and destroy competition" while raising prices of its software to "supra-competitive levels." Tangent is arguing that the tactics are a violation of section 2 Sherman Antitrust Act, a federal law prohibiting unfair business practices and monopolies.

The lawsuit details legal issues which have faced Microsoft since the 1980s, and requests that an amount of monetary damages to be determined by a jury at a trial.

Tangent is an original equipment manufacturer who has purchased and installed Microsoft operating systems since 1995. In addition to their hardware business, they also provide Internet content monitoring, spam filtering, anti-spyware and adware solutions, network vulnerability assessments, active directory tools and migration services.