The Federal Trade Commission is reportedly preparing to investigate Microsoft's cloud computing business as antitrust efforts continue at full throttle in the final weeks of the Biden administration.
The agency, headed by Commissioner Lina Khan, filed a complaint alleging that the company is abusing its market power by enforcing conditions that prevent users from moving data from Azure services to other cloud computing software. An investigation is underway, people with direct knowledge of the matter said. told the Financial Times.
Reports say Microsoft is raising subscription prices for users who leave the platform, charging exorbitant exit fees and making its Office 365 products incompatible with other cloud services. .
Regulators have not yet requested any documents or information from Microsoft, people told the Financial Times.
The FTC and Microsoft declined to comment.
The planned investigation is just the latest crackdown on Big Tech by the FTC under Khan. “She's going to be fired soon.” According to Elon Musk, a Trump ally and owner of Billionaire X.
Khan has led a tough administration at the helm of the FTC since President Joe Biden appointed him in 2021.
During her tenure, authorities blocked the Nvidia-Lockheed Martin merger and accused Meta of operating as a monopoly. The committee has fought to block Microsoft's $69 billion deal with video game maker Activision Blizzard and grocer Kroger's planned $25 billion merger with Albertsons. .
Republicans take issue with Mr. Khan's aggressive approach to top Silicon Valley companies. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to curb the “regulatory onslaught” from government agencies such as the FTC.
In November 2023, after seeking input from business luminaries and academics. Survey results published by FTC About competition and security practices in the cloud computing industry.
And the report cited similar grievances Microsoft allegedly made, including high termination fees, software licensing practices that discourage the use of other platforms, and extreme “lock-in” discounts for customers who use only one cloud service. mentions many of them.
Microsoft is also under intense scrutiny from international regulators.
British regulators announced in April that they were investigating recent separate artificial intelligence deals by Microsoft and Amazon, citing concerns that the collaborations would stifle competition.
In July, the Washington-based software company signed a $21 million deal with CISPE, a small European cloud services provider, to avoid an EU antitrust investigation.
Cloud services have grown into an incredibly lucrative business for technology companies. Spending on cloud services is expected to reach $561 billion in 2023 and exceed $675 billion this year, with the expansion of generative AI driving the sector to grow by 20%. According to market research company Gartner.
According to Statista, Microsoft controls about 20% of the cloud computing market, behind leader Amazon's 31% market share.
According to Statista, Google is far behind in third place with a market share of 11%.
This is a highly competitive field, and Microsoft has accused Google of dirty practices in the past.
Microsoft last month accused Google of running a “shadow campaign” to smear its name among regulators.
In July, it was reported that Google's attempts to persuade CISPE (a European cloud service provider that has settled with Microsoft) to pursue complaints against Microsoft were unsuccessful.
