Microsoft Allegedly Violates Antitrust Law; Japan's Fair Trade Commission Announces Investigation

IT House, March 4 — The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) announced today that it has launched an investigation into Microsoft, its Japanese subsidiary, and its Irish subsidiary (collectively referred to as “Microsoft and others”) for suspected violations of the Anti-Monopoly Act.

The JFTC stated that Microsoft and others are suspected of setting technical or fee conditions that make it difficult for customers to run Microsoft software on non-Azure platforms or require them to bear higher costs. As part of the investigation, the JFTC is seeking information and opinions from third parties today.

The JFTC indicated that Microsoft has provided the following exclusive cloud service usage terms to users who are “already or about to” purchase subscriptions for its software or services (such as Windows Server, Windows Client, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft 365, Visual Studio, etc.) licenses:

• This service must not be used in conjunction with any cloud services that compete with cloud services provided by Microsoft (such as Microsoft Azure); or

• When users combine this service with competing cloud services, they alter or set transaction conditions that cause users to incur higher costs than when using this service on the Azure platform.

The JFTC believes this hampers other cloud service providers from winning cloud service contracts.

IT House notes that last month, Nikkei reported that the Japan Fair Trade Commission conducted a surprise inspection of Microsoft Japan’s office to investigate whether Microsoft was engaging in unfair competition by restricting Azure customers from using other cloud services.