Ballmer in dock over Vista Capable

Posted on 24 Nov 2008 at 10:11

Steve Ballmer will be required to give his side of Microsoft’s Vista Capable controversy, despite having denied that he was involved in any of the operational decisions.

US District Court Judge Marsha Pechman has ruled that the Microsoft chief executive must meet with the plaintiff's lawyers within the next 30 days. They will have three hours to record his deposition.

Ballmer has previously said that he had no part in establishing the requirements that PCs must meet in order to display the Vista Capable badge.

But papers submitted to the court last week said that Intel chief executive Paul Otellini had personally thanked Ballmer for Microsoft’s decision to change the requirements, making it easier for PCs to qualify for the badge.

This, said Pechman, was enough to demonstrate that Ballmer, “may have relevant, unique personal knowledge of relevant facts”.

Microsoft is facing a class action lawsuit which alleges that the company misled customers by describing PCs that were not capable of running the latest version of Windows as “Vista Capable”.

Microsoft says that the Vista Capable campaign, “gave consumers the information they needed to choose the PC that would run the version of Windows Vista that best fit their lifestyle.”

Author: Simon Aughton / Stuart Turton

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