- CMA launches investigation into strategic state of Microsoft software market, which could take nine months
- UK regulators are concerned that the company is bundling its software to gain an unfair advantage.
- Microsoft has already reached an agreement with the CMA on cloud interoperability
Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced that it will begin a strategic state of the market (SMS) investigation into Microsoft software in May 2026, which will likely cover the Windows operating system, Office productivity software and the Copilot AI assistant.
It is Copilot more than the others that likely prompted this action, as the CMA seeks to ensure a level playing field by preventing Microsoft from gaining an unfair advantage.
As always, CMA is focused on interoperability here, looking for a solution that allows customers to mix and match productivity and artificial intelligence tools across multiple vendors.
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Microsoft faces another antitrust investigation
On the cloud front, Microsoft has already promised to improve interoperability and remove cloud exit fees to make it easier for UK customers to switch or use multi-cloud setups, but now the CMA is focusing on the company’s productivity software.
“We’ve seen real progress through our engagement with Microsoft and Amazon to drive significant improvements in egress fees and interoperability and we look forward to more action from them in the coming months,” CEO Sarah Cardell wrote.
Mark Boost, chief executive of UK-based cloud provider Civo, praised the research’s intentions but criticized it for “not providing[ing] appropriate solutions to resolve the serious issues surrounding the dominance of these key overseas-based hyperscalers.”
The CMA’s Cardell envisions a process by which the body can deliver a rapid and proportionate impact on the software and cloud markets to save customers money in real time, but with SMS likely to take up to nine months, we are unlikely to see any immediate impact.
Microsoft says it has already abolished exit fees globally for customers switching carriers, offering them a free 180-day switching window (up from 60), as well as free data transfers.
The company’s president, Brad Smith, also explained that Microsoft agrees with the principles of moving workloads freely, running them on multiple clouds and avoiding vendor lock-in.
“We are committed to working quickly and constructively to address these issues, including providing all the information the CMA needs to move forward with its reviews,” Smith shared.
Smith also drew attention to Google, a company that has already filed complaints about the dominance of Microsoft and Amazon. Google Cloud revenue grew 48% last quarter (compared to overall company revenue growth of 18%), while AWS and Microsoft Cloud revenue grew a much smaller 24% to 26% in the same quarter.
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