Judge gives "Vista Capable" case the go-ahead

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 25 Feb 2008 at 09:35

A US judge has granted permission for a class-action suit against Microsoft, following claims that its "Vista Capable" scheme deliberately misled consumers.

The software giant is being sued in a Seattle court by two plaintiffs who claim that the "Windows Vista Capable" logos that were added to PCs before the operating system's launch were misleading. They claim that the label suggested the PC could run any version of Vista, when in fact it was only guaranteed to run Vista Home Basic.

The plaintiffs argue that Vista Home Basic "isn't the real Vista", because it lacks many of the key features that differentiate Vista from its predecessor. A filing to the court cited PC Pro contributing editor Jon Honeyball's interview with Acer Corporate Vice President, Jim Wong, in which he claimed "Premium is the real Vista".

Judge Marsha Pechman has now ruled that the consumers may proceed with a class-action suit against Microsoft, following earlier hearings.

Earlier this month the court was shown leaked emails from senior Microsoft officials that revealed concern about the scheme.

Former Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin, allegedly told his colleagues that they had "really botched" the Vista Capable scheme, whilst another Microsoft employee wrote that "even a piece of junk will qualify" for the sticker.

In a statement sent to PC Pro, Microsoft says the leaked emails don't reflect the company's position on the sticker scheme. "The emails reflect part of an active discussion about how best to implement the Windows Vista Capable program," it reads.

"What the e-mails don't show is the comprehensive education campaign Microsoft led through retailers, manufacturers, the press, and our own website.

"The campaign armed consumers with the information they needed to choose a PC that would run the version of Windows Vista that fit their budget and their computing needs.

"Throughout this process, Microsoft employees raised concerns and addressed issues with the intent to make this program better for our business partners and valuable for consumers. That's the sort of exchange we want to encourage."