Microsoft faces wide-ranging US antitrust probe

STORY: U.S. regulators have opened an antitrust investigation into Microsoft.

A source told Reuters Wednesday (Nov 27) the U.S. Federal Trade Commission will look at its software licensing and cloud computing businesses.

The probe was approved by FTC Chair Lina Khan ahead of her likely departure in January.

However, the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president leaves the outcome of the investigation up in the air.

He is expected to appoint a fellow Republican with a softer approach toward business.

Sources confirmed the FTC is examining allegations the software giant is potentially abusing its market power in productivity software.

That by imposing punitive licensing terms to prevent customers from moving their data from its Azure cloud service to other competitive platforms.

The source added the FTC is also looking at practices related to cybersecurity and AI products.

Microsoft declined to comment on Wednesday.

Competitors have criticized Microsoft’s practices they say keep customers locked into its Azure cloud offering.

NetChoice is a lobbying group that represents online companies including Amazon and Google which compete with Microsoft in cloud computing.

They have criticized Microsoft’s licensing policies, and its integration of AI tools into its Office and Outlook.

Google in September complained to the European Commission about Microsoft’s practices.

It argued it made customers pay a 400% mark-up to keep running Windows Server on rival cloud computing operators.

Bloomberg said the FTC has demanded a broad range of detailed information from Microsoft.

U.S. antitrust regulators’ have been on a recent campaign against allegedly anticompetitive practices at Big Tech companies.

Facebook owner Meta, Apple, and Amazon have all been accused by the U.S. of unlawfully maintaining monopolies.

Alphabet’s Google faces two lawsuits, including one where a judge found it unlawfully hurt competition among online search engines.

It is unclear whether Trump will ease up on Big Tech, although his first administration launched several probes.