# The US and Microsoft reach an antitrust settlement

Date: 2001

## The fact

On 2 November 2001 the [Department of Justice](/organizations/department-of-justice) and Microsoft announced a settlement ending the breakup path, with conduct remedies on APIs and OEM contracts. [Gates](/people/bill-gates) was chairman.

## Context

Neighbouring 2000 findings are the liability. Neighbouring 2004 EU decision is a later, harder interoperability text. He did not sit as the judge.

April 2000 findings are neighbouring. 2004 EU decision is later Commission law.

Bill Gates was Microsoft CEO until January 2000, chairman until February 2014, then a technical adviser until 2020, and a Gates Foundation co-chair. That is not authorship of every Windows copy, every GAVI dose, or every IRS schedule. Melinda French Gates is a different person. Bill Clinton is PER-000772, a different person. A pledge is not a coverage rate. A docket is not a personality.

## Evidence and sources

United States Department of Justice carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

The path is antitrust-pressure: a completed conduct settlement is a limited accountability instrument that did not break the firm up.

## What is established and what is not

Established: 2 November 2001 US-Microsoft settlement, independently reported.

Not established: that browser competition was thereby restored to a unique coefficient, or that the EU was bound.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

DOJ settled. The court entered judgment. The EU later wrote a harder decision.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies The US and Microsoft reach an antitrust settlement, not a later speech about The US and Microsoft reach an antitrust settlement.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. The US and Microsoft reach an antitrust settlement on 2001-11-02 is not a licence to treat every later United States Department of Justice communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor instrument exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average The US and Microsoft reach an antitrust settlement into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He was chairman of the settling defendant. DOJ settled. The court entered judgment. The EU later wrote a harder decision. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series.

## People

- Bill Gates: https://factrail.ai/people/bill-gates

## Drivers

- Antitrust Pressure in Digital Markets: https://factrail.ai/drivers/antitrust-pressure-in-digital-markets
- Digital-Platform Power Concentration: https://factrail.ai/drivers/digital-platform-power-concentration

## Sources

- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-microsoft-settlement-idUSKCN0Q70K4
- https://www.justice.gov/atr/case-document/final-judgment-0

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/us-v-microsoft-2001