A federal judge in California has dismissed a pair of cases that were filed last year against Microsoft and Yahoo by a bulk emailing firm that argued the companies violated antitrust laws when their spam filters blocked its emails.

Microsoft’s SmartScreen spam filter technology started to block messages from the company, Holomaxx, after the Redmond company found their contents to be “harassing” and “otherwise objectionable,” according to court papers.

Holomaxx alleged in its suit that Microsoft’s actions “threatened and prevented fair and honest competition for internet advertising services by shutting Holomaxx out of the marketplace, thereby violating the spirit of antitrust laws.”

Microsoft said it was within its rights under the Communications Decency Act.

In a ruling issued yesterday, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose found that Holomaxx hadn’t proved its case. He wrote that “the fact that Holomaxx may have lost money as a result of vigorous competition, without more, is insufficient to show an antitrust violation or unfair competition.”

Read the full text here: PDF, 7 pages. The judge issued a similar decision in the case against Yahoo.

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