In recent events, the tech giant Microsoft has been accused of abusing its power in productivity software by imposing punitive licensing terms. According to Livemint, the company has imposed these terms to prevent customers from transferring their data from Azure cloud services to another competitor’s cloud services.
The FTC has been examining the cloud services markets for the last year and fielded many complaints against the company. Later, ahead of her departure, chairman Lina Khan approved the probe. It is also examining practices related to cybersecurity and artificial intelligence products. However, Microsoft has declined to comment on the situation.
Netchoice, a lobbying group that competes with Microsoft, mentioned, “Given that Microsoft is the world’s largest software company, dominating in productivity and operating systems software, the scale and consequences of its licensing decisions are extraordinary.” Moreover, in September, Google lodged a complaint with the European Commission regarding Microsoft’s practices. Google claimed that Microsoft imposed a 400% markup on customers to continue using Windows Server on competing cloud platforms and provided them with delayed and restricted security updates.
Anti-Trust Regulators Recent Campaigns
So far, Microsoft has largely avoided the U.S. antitrust regulators’ scrutiny that other Big Tech companies have faced. Meta Platforms (Facebook’s owner), Apple, Google, and Amazon have all been accused of maintaining illegal monopolies. Alphabet’s Google is currently dealing with two lawsuits, one involving a judge ruling that it unlawfully hindered competition among online search engines.
