Opinion ID: 2054610
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: End User Licensing Agreements

Text: The plaintiffs additionally argue that the End Users Licensing Agreements required of every Windows 98 user creates a relationship between Microsoft and plaintiffs that is an exception to the indirect purchaser bar enunciated in Illinois Brick Co. The plaintiffs argue that, as a result of the licensing agreements, they have contracted directly with Microsoft and are subject to Microsoft's direct control in all aspects of their use of Windows 98. Further, plaintiffs submit that they have received a direct warranty from Microsoft and that their remedies for breach of that warranty are directly controlled by Microsoft. We are not persuaded that an End User Licensing Agreement and a consumer warranty are sufficient to vest plaintiffs with standing to sue as direct purchasers. The licensing agreement is simply an agreement between the parties that the user will not infringe on Microsoft's copyright; it does not place the parties in direct purchaser privity with each other. Similarly, the warranty agreement is a common service provided by manufacturers to end users of their products. The warranty creates no special relationship between Microsoft and the consumer beyond its terms. The enormous number of potential litigants created by adopting such a warranty or end user license exception to Illinois Brick Co. is, in itself, instructive. We cannot attribute to the Supreme Court the intent to exclude from the holding in Illinois Brick Co. any manufacturer who employs a standard licensing agreement in aid of its copyright or provides a typical consumer warranty against defects in the manufacture of its products. Mindful of the directive of § 6-36-2(b) to construe the Antitrust Act in harmony with judicial interpretations of comparable federal antitrust statutes, we are of theopinion that these incidental agreements do not exempt plaintiffs claims from the purview of Illinois Brick Co.