The UK Competition and Markets Authority said it would open a probe into Microsoft’s dominance in business software to determine whether it merits “strategic market status”, amid questions over whether the CMA is under-utilising new market enforcement powers.
The new probe comes after the CMA in March said it would not pursue SMS investigations into the cloud platforms of Amazon and Microsoft, instead accepting endeavours from the two companies to reduce certain fees for moving companies’ data to other platforms, and other voluntary commitments.
At the time, the CMA board said it planned to begin an SMS probe into Microsoft’s business software offerings in May.
Software probe
The new probe, which the agency said would finish by next February, is to look into the potential uncompetitive effects from bundling software such as Windows, Word, Excel, Teams and Copilot, Microsoft’s AI offering.
