UK opens antitrust enquiry into Microsoft dominance of business software

Date:
Fri, 15 May 2026 08:54:00 +0000

Description:
Microsoft is being investigated by the UK's CMA over its business software practices.

FULL STORY
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched an
investigation into Microsoft 's business software to determine whether the American tech giant has excessive market power in the country.

Competition, consumer choice, innovation and pricing are all set to be analyzed in the Strategic Market Status (SMS) investigation. Britain's investigation comes at an important point, with Microsoft now holding more than 15 million commercial users across the UK including across public sector organizations. Software is undergoing a major change as copilots
and AI assistants get embedded and many businesses even turn to fully autonomous, agentic workflows. With this, the CMA wants to ensure that customers can still mix and match software from different vendors and integrate third-party AI into Microsoft's suite to prevent vendor exclusivity and lock-in.

Regulators have expressed concerns over the way Microsoft bundles its
products as well as interoperability restrictions that make it challenging, expensive or impossible to integrate third-party tools and software.

"Our aim is to understand how these markets are developing, Microsofts position within them and to consider what, if any, targeted action may be needed to ensure UK organisations can benefit from choice, innovation and competitive prices," CMA CEO Sarah Cardell explained.

If Microsoft is deemed to have too much control over the market, the CMA
could impost interoperability requirements, bundling restrictions and other measures.

As for the next stages, the CMA plans to work with rival software vendors, challenger companies, enterprise customers and public sector organizations to get a clearer picture of the market.

"We are committed to working quickly and constructively with the CMA to facilitate its review of the business software market," a Microsoft spokesperson said.

The CMA says its nine-month investigation will be "proportionate and transparent," and that a final decision on whether to designate Microsoft
with SMS will be made by February 2027.

Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/uk-opens-antitrust-enquiry-into-microsoft-domina nce-of-business-software

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