Germany to investigate Microsoft’s market impact

 

Germany's Bundeskartellamt, which translates to Federal Cartel Office (FCO), has opened a proceeding against Microsoft to investigate whether the U.S. tech giant significantly impacts the competition across markets and to determine if any abuse control rules can be applied to the company's business in Germany. 

The announcement references Microsoft's "expansive product range for both business customers and consumers," indicating that the company may hold "paramount significance across markets." 

  • In 2021, the Bundeskartellamt introduced extended abuse control measures that target large digital companies and allow antitrust authorities to prohibit companies that harm the competition across markets from engaging in certain anti-competitive practices. 
  • The proceeding is the first step required to take legal action against Microsoft. 
  • Andreas Mundt, president of the FCO, stated that "we have seen a strong increase in the importance of the cloud services Azure and OneDrive, which are often linked to other Microsoft applications," adding that Microsoft's presence in video conferencing, collaborative working, gaming, career services, internet searching, and AI present "good reasons to examine whether Microsoft is of paramount significance for competition across markets."
  • Mundt clarified that the proceeding does not indicate that the FCO is taking formal steps to stop Microsoft's alleged anti-competitive practices and that to take any legal action, there must be "complaints or other information" as evidence proving that Microsoft is engaging in potentially anti-competitive practices.

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