We report on the XMM-Newton observations of the BL Lac object MS 0737.9+7441 during the performance verification phase .
A simple power–law fit provides an adequate description of the integrated spectrum in the 0.2–10 keV energy band .
The photon index is slightly steeper in the EPIC pn data with \Gamma = ( 2.38 \pm 0.01 ) compared to the EPIC MOS data ( \Gamma = ( 2.28 \pm 0.01 ) ) .
The difference is most probably due to the present uncertainties in the calibration of the EPIC MOS and EPIC pn data sets .
We report evidence for intrinsic absorption in the distant BL Lac above the Galactic column ( N _ { H,Gal } = 3.2 \cdot 10 ^ { 20 } { cm ^ { -2 } } ) which is N _ { H,fit } ^ { z = 0.315 } = ( 2.70 \pm 0.20 ) \times 10 ^ { 20 } cm ^ { -2 } in the EPIC pn data and N _ { H,fit } ^ { z = 0.315 } = ( 3.25 \pm 0.25 ) \times 10 ^ { 20 } cm ^ { -2 } in the EPIC MOS data assuming neutral gas and solar abundances .
The flux variations are found to be of the order of 10 % .
No significant spectral variability is detected .