International Courant
Signage from Microsoft Corp. in New York, USA, on Friday, October 25, 2024.
Jeenah Moon | Bloomberg | Getty Photographs
The US Federal Commerce Fee has opened a broad antitrust investigation Microsofttogether with from its software program licensing and cloud computing companies, a supply accustomed to the matter mentioned Wednesday.
The investigation was authorized by FTC Chair Lina Khan forward of her seemingly departure in January. The election of Donald Trump as US president, and expectations that he’ll appoint a fellow Republican with a softer method to enterprise, leaves the end result of the investigation up within the air.
The FTC is investigating allegations that the software program large could also be abusing its market energy in productiveness software program by imposing punitive licensing phrases to stop clients from transferring their information from its Azure cloud service to different competing platforms, sources confirmed earlier this month.
The FTC can be taking a look at practices associated to cybersecurity and synthetic intelligence merchandise, the supply mentioned Wednesday.
Microsoft declined to remark Wednesday.
The FTC filed complaints about Microsoft final yr because it investigated the cloud computing market.
NetChoice, a lobbying group representing on-line firms together with Amazon and Google that compete with Microsoft in cloud computing, criticized Microsoft’s licensing insurance policies and integration of AI instruments into Workplace and Outlook.
“Provided that Microsoft is the world’s largest software program firm, dominating in productiveness and working system software program, the dimensions and penalties of its licensing selections are extraordinary,” the group mentioned.
The FTC has demanded a variety of detailed data from Microsoft, Bloomberg reported earlier on Wednesday.
Till now, Microsoft has been considerably of an exception to the latest marketing campaign by US antitrust regulators in opposition to alleged anti-competitive practices at Huge Tech firms.
Fb proprietor Meta Platforms, Apple and Amazon.com Inc. have all been accused by the US of illegally sustaining monopolies.
Alphabet’s Google is going through two lawsuits, together with one wherein a decide dominated that it unlawfully thwarted competitors amongst on-line search engines like google and yahoo.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified at Google’s trial, saying the search large used unique offers with publishers to lock down content material used to coach synthetic intelligence.
It’s unclear whether or not Trump will calm down the method to Huge Tech, whose first administration launched a number of Huge Tech investigations. JD Vance, the brand new vice chairman, has expressed concern concerning the energy companies wield within the public debate.
But Microsoft has benefited from Trump’s insurance policies previously.
In 2019, the Pentagon awarded it a $10 billion cloud computing contract, which Amazon was broadly anticipated to win. Amazon later alleged that Trump put undue stress on army officers to divert the contract away from its Amazon Internet Providers unit.
