Several similar cases have been dismissed in other US states on the grounds that the consumers did not directly buy Windows from Microsoft. Instead, the operating system was pre-installed on their computers by the hardware manufacturers. Under federal law, indirect purchasers cannot sue in these circumstances; but under the state laws of Minnesota and eight other states, they can.
Similar lawsuits in California and Arizona have already won class action status. However, similar lawsuits in Baltimore, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Nevada and Oregon and Washington have been dismissed.
Class actions are not uncommon in the US. They are supported by English law, but not Scots law. They benefit those whose rights or liabilities can be more efficiently determined as a group than in a series of individual lawsuits. For the judge in Minnesota to deem the case eligible for class action status does not mean he supports the claims being made by the litigants.