Micro­soft Sett­le­ment to Pro­vi­de Mil­li­ons of Dol­lars In Bene­fits to New York Con­su­mers and Businesses

A Sett­le­ment has been rea­ched in a class action lawsu­it against Micro­soft on behalf of con­su­mers and busi­nesses that acqui­red Micro­soft soft­ware from May 18, 1994 through Decem­ber 31, 2004 for use in New York Sta­te. The poten­ti­al value of the Sett­le­ment, if all eli­gi­ble Class Mem­bers made a cla­im, is esti­ma­ted to be appro­xi­m­ate­ly $350 million.
The Sett­le­ment pro­vi­des for the dis­tri­bu­ti­on of cash vou­ch­ers for com­pu­ters, hard­ware and soft­ware to eli­gi­ble con­su­mers and busi­nesses as out­lined below. The lawsu­it, Cox vs. Micro­soft Cor­po­ra­ti­on, Index No. ¹⁰⁵¹⁹³⁄₀₀, is pen­ding in the Supre­me Court of the Sta­te of New York, New York County.

Who Can File Claims?

All per­sons or enti­ties who, from and inclu­ding May 18, 1994 through Decem­ber 31, 2004, indi­rect­ly acqui­red (purcha­sed) a licen­se for use in New York and not resa­le for:

o Micro­soft Win­dows, MS-DOS, Office, Word or Excel.

You 'indi­rect­ly purcha­sed' soft­ware if you legal­ly acqui­red it from a per­son or enti­ty other than Micro­soft, such as a com­pu­ter manu­fac­tu­rer, a retail­er or ano­ther resel­ler If you purcha­sed a com­pu­ter during this peri­od with a Micro­soft ope­ra­ting system alre­a­dy instal­led, you are eli­gi­ble to recei­ve Sett­le­ment bene­fits. Cer­tain enti­ties and indi­vi­du­als are exclu­ded from the Class as detail­ed in the noti­ce on the Web site listed below.

Click on the links below to:

Read a more detail­ed Notice
Get a Cla­im Form
Read the Sett­le­ment Agree­ment and Release

What Does the Sett­le­ment Provide?

If appro­ved by the Court, the Sett­le­ment will pro­vi­de cash vou­ch­ers to be used for the purcha­se of com­pu­ters, peri­phe­ral com­pu­ter hard­ware (like prin­ters or scan­ners) or com­pu­ter soft­ware made by any manu­fac­tu­rer. The vou­ch­ers are worth:

o $12 for each Micro­soft Win­dows 95, Win­dows 98, Win­dows 98 Second Edi­ti­on or Win­dows Mill­en­ni­um ope­ra­ting system soft­ware license;

o $5 for each Microsoft's MS-DOS and Win­dows ver­si­ons 1.0 to 3.11, Win­dows for Work­groups, Win­dows NT Work­sta­tion, Win­dows 2000 Pro­fes­sio­nal, Win­dows XPPro­fes­sio­nal and Win­dows XP Home Edi­ti­on licen­se; and

o $5 each for Microsoft's "Office" "Word" and "Excel" spreadsheet soft­ware license.

Soft­ware purcha­sed for ser­ver com­pu­ters and Apple com­pu­ters is not eligible.

You are entit­led to cla­im the spe­ci­fi­ed amounts for each copy of the com­pu­ter soft­ware you lawful­ly acqui­red. Busi­nesses who licen­sed their soft­ware on a "volu­me" basis may sub­mit claims for each com­pu­ter their volu­me licen­se aut­ho­ri­zes them to use in con­junc­tion with the soft­ware listed abo­ve. Soft­ware upgrades count as a sepa­ra­te purcha­se unless you are a busi­ness with an "Enter­pri­se" license.
Busi­nesses head­quar­te­red out­side the Sta­te of New York that acqui­red Micro­soft soft­ware for use at any of their New York loca­ti­ons are eli­gi­ble. See the detail­ed noti­ce at the Web site listed below for more information.

How Do You Get Benefits?

All forms are available at: forms

or by cal­ling 1−800−372−2368 toll-free. Your cla­im form must be post­mark­ed no later than Octo­ber 18, 2006 to get benefits.

o If you acqui­red up to five copies of qua­li­fy­ing Micro­soft pro­ducts, you can use a Stan­dard Cla­im Form and you do not have to pro­vi­de any addi­tio­nal docu­ments or pro­of of purcha­se. You may also sub­mit a cla­im online on or befo­re Octo­ber 18, 2006.

o If you are not a volu­me licen­see and have more than 5 licen­ses, you can also use a Stan­dard Cla­im Form but you will need to pro­vi­de addi­tio­nal information.

o If you are a volu­me licen­see (e.g. "Open," "Sel­ect" or "Enter­pri­se"), you need a Volu­me Licen­se Cla­im Form.

Claims may be audi­ted and pen­al­ties app­ly for fal­se claims.

Sel­ling Or Dona­ting Your Benefits.

You may dona­te or sell up to $650 of vou­ch­ers to other per­sons or orga­nizati­ons for their per­so­nal or busi­ness use and not for resa­le. Trans­fer­red vou­ch­ers may be rede­e­med up to $10,000. Vou­ch­ers can be trans­fer­red only once.

What are Your Options?

If you do not want to be legal­ly bound by the Sett­le­ment, you must exclude yours­elf in wri­ting by May 18, 2006. If you exclude yours­elf, you keep the right to sue Micro­soft about the claims in this case but you will not recei­ve any vouchers.

If you don't exclude yours­elf, you have the right to object to any aspect of the Sett­le­ment. Your objec­tion must be filed in wri­ting by May 18, 2006.

The Court has appoin­ted att­or­neys to repre­sent you. They will seek att­or­neys' fees of $23.5 mil­li­on plus rea­sonable costs. The amount paid to Class Coun­sel will be paid sepa­ra­te­ly and will not affect the value of the vou­ch­ers available to the Class. You may also hire your own att­or­ney at your own expense.

The Court will hold a Hea­ring at 10:00 a.m., on June 13, 2006 at 60 Cent­re Street, New York, NY, 10007, to deci­de whe­ther the Sett­le­ment is fair, rea­sonable and ade­qua­te. Objec­tions will also be heard. You may wri­te the Court for per­mis­si­on to speak at the Fair­ness Hea­ring. Your request must be recei­ved no later than May 18, 2006. The detail­ed noti­ce explains how to object, exclude yours­elf or request per­mis­si­on to speak at the Hearing.

If the Sett­le­ment is appro­ved, Micro­soft will be released from lia­bi­li­ty for all claims asso­cia­ted with the liti­ga­ti­on. For more infor­ma­ti­on call 1−800−372−2368 toll-free or go to "Sett­le­ment"