The Federal Cartel Office has launched an investigation against Microsoft, checking whether the company is abusing its market power. The antitrust authorities will scrutinize whether Microsoft has outstanding cross-market importance that endangers competition. If found guilty of anti-competitive practices, Microsoft could be prohibited from certain activities. The authority sees Microsoft’s “digital ecosystem” as an indication of its dominance, and it will be tough for other companies to combat this position of power.
President Andreas Mundt of the Bundeskartellamt said that Microsoft has a strong position in operating systems and office software, and they are now examining the increasing importance of cloud services Azure and OneDrive, Teams software for video conferencing, and working together. In addition, Microsoft is active in gaming with Xbox, career networks with LinkedIn, and internet searches with Bing. They’ve also integrated AI applications recently.
Microsoft faces EU Commission involvement if complaints or indications of potentially anti-competitive practices emerge after the investigation. Slack Technologies has already complained to the EU Commission. According to Slack, Microsoft is acting anti-competitively by integrating software teams into Microsoft 365 services.
The Bundeskartellamt has already taken action against Google, Alphabet, and Meta, issuing a legally binding statement of outstanding cross-market importance for competition. Amazon has challenged such a statement legally. The Federal Cartel Office said that it’s also examining the Apple group closely.
