Microsoft is facing the largest US FTC antitrust investigation to date
- Microsoft threatened antitrust investigation into cloud, AI and security practices
- Latest in a series of US and European studies for the company in 2024
- The FTC is gearing up for new leadership, possibly Microsoft’s ‘get out of jail’ card
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reportedly launched a broad antitrust investigation into Microsoft, questioning the company’s business practices in the cloud computing, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity markets.
First reported by Bloombergthe proposed investigation would focus on allegations of market dominance and other potentially anti-competitive practices.
The company has already faced criticism for bundling software within Azure services, imposing technical restrictions and offering preferential pricing, locking customers into the company’s ecosystem.
FTC threatens Microsoft with far-reaching investigation
This isn’t the first time Microsoft has run afoul of antitrust regulators. In the European Union, Google recently called for stricter supervision of Microsoft’s licensing terms.
The company also reached a settlement with the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe group (CISPE) earlier this year; at the time, CISPE Secretary General Francisco Mingorance said this would mark the end of that struggle.
In cybersecurity, Microsoft has faced criticism for integrating its Defender antivirus into the Windows operating system, making it harder for other antivirus software vendors to sell their own solutions and raising monopoly issues.
A third branch of the reported FTC investigation, focused on artificial intelligence, examines Microsoft’s deep integration with OpenAI. The company notoriously invested billions in the startup not long after ChatGPT went public, and its major language models have been used in several Microsoft applications in the ensuing years.
Microsoft isn’t the only company facing increasing pressure from the FTC; the Commission has also cracked down on many competing companies, including Amazon, Google and Meta.
However, all this could be about to change with the impending departure of FTC Chairman Lina Khan, who is known for her aggressive stance toward Big Tech. The Trump administration, on the other hand, is promising a more business-friendly approach.
