http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100430/1301469263.shtmlYou may remember back in October of last year that Microsoft publicly warned Xbox users who were using 3rd party memory cards for their Xbox that it was about to break those cards, and that users should, instead, transfer data to Microsoft's own cards. Datel, a maker of third party cards apparently sued Microsoft, claiming antitrust violations in this move, and Eric Goldman points us to the news that a magistrate judge has rejected Microsoft's request to dismiss most parts of the lawsuit. Microsoft argued that there was no antitrust violation because Xbox buyers bought the box knowing they could only buy aftermarket parts from Microsoft. Datel responded by pointing out that the warranty that made that point was only presented to the buyer after they opened the box and "therefore, a consumer could not have knowingly and voluntarily accepted it prior to purchase." After looking at a few other factors, the judge refused to dismiss the claim, noting that "shopping for competing products in the Aftermarket is not clearly precluded by any contractual provision into which customers knowingly and voluntarily entered." Datel did lose on a separate complaint, though it can amend and refile. Either way, this is good news for the aftermarket business, and it seems likely that there will be a full trial that looks at this issue.
Interesting potential new precedent that could evolve out of this if the case goes to full trial. The case brings into question whether actually
having knowledge of contractual proprietary exclusivity is a requisite foundation for enforcing it. If Datel wins we may see a lot more explicit vendor lock-in notices on the outside of the boxes they ship in. But even with proper notice, this practice of forcing those who want an XBox 360 to pay unreasonable amounts for otherwise identical RAM upgrades is truly a disgraceful approach to maximizing revenue
