This is a sweeping expansion of what was already one of the planet’s strictest antitrust enforcement actions. It’s based on new regulatory powers that Germany introduced in 2021 that require the BKartA to investigate whether large and powerful companies are of “paramount significance across markets,” meaning they have the ability to prevent other companies from contesting their market power effectively. The regulatory body announced its investigation of Microsoft in March 2024, noting how it expanded the market power established by Windows and Office by expanding into new markets for video conferencing and collaboration (Teams), video games (Xbox), career networks (LinkedIn), and Internet Search (Bing), and is now seeking to do the same with AI.
Its conclusions were obvious enough: Microsoft owns a “comprehensive cross-market portfolio of products, particularly for business customers, which are interconnected in many ways.” It has “continuously increased its portfolio through acquisitions, its own developments and by adding new functionalities to its established core products.” As such, “it has a significant advantage over competitors that are only active on individual submarkets” and have trouble interconnecting with the products in Microsoft’s ecosystem.
The BKartA will now monitor Microsoft’s activities for five years, but it has yet to decide whether any specific activities warrant possible proceedings. It will publish a more detailed report discussing the investigation soon.
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