Kris Carlon / Android Authority
TL;DR
- The Federal Commerce Fee is wanting into whether or not Microsoft’s bundling practices have damaged antitrust guidelines.
- Investigators allege Microsoft lured federal companies with free software program solely to lock them into paid providers later.
- Microsoft denies any wrongdoing, saying its free upgrades have been solely meant to strengthen authorities cybersecurity.
The Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) has initiated an investigation into Microsoft, probing potential antitrust violations throughout the firm’s enterprise practices. This motion follows a report by ProPublica that detailed how Microsoft could have leveraged its market dominance to achieve an unfair benefit in authorities contracts. (through Bloomberg)
The investigation facilities on Microsoft’s technique of bundling in style software program like Office with cybersecurity and cloud computing providers. The ProPublica report alleges that Microsoft briefly supplied these bundled providers to authorities companies freed from cost following a collection of high-profile cyberattacks. Nevertheless, upon the conclusion of this free trial interval, authorities companies typically discovered themselves locked into these providers, changing into depending on Microsoft’s choices.
Critics level out that Microsoft’s technique not solely sidelined different cloud and safety suppliers but additionally pushed the federal government to work intently with Microsoft’s Azure platform, even when Microsoft itself was partly “accountable” for some high-profile cyberattacks.
Within the 2020 SolarWinds hack, which was linked to Russian attackers, a flaw in a Microsoft product was exploited. One other ProPublica report discovered {that a} Microsoft engineer had noticed the weak spot beforehand however was overruled, partly to keep away from making login processes too cumbersome (and thus doubtlessly shedding floor to rivals).
Microsoft has defended its actions, stating that the bundled choices have been supposed to handle the pressing cybersecurity wants of presidency companies. Nevertheless, the FTC’s investigation will scrutinize whether or not these actions represent anti-competitive conduct, doubtlessly leveraging the corporate’s market dominance to unfairly exclude rivals and limit client alternative.
Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, quoted within the ProPublica report, has additionally argued that Microsoft’s dimension and affect protect it from extra decisive motion. He likens the agency to a “too huge to fail” entity and means that regulators would possibly must take a more durable line on huge tech corporations’ market dominance.
The FTC’s investigation is already in full swing, with the company issuing Microsoft a “civil investigative demand,” much like a subpoena that compels the corporate to provide paperwork and different data. Whereas particulars of the probe stay underneath wraps, a Microsoft spokesperson acknowledged that the scope of the FTC’s requests is “broad, wide-ranging, and requests issues which might be out of the realm of chance to even be logical.”
