US regulators open broad antitrust investigation into Microsoft — Report

Multiple reports have confirmed that the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated a sweeping antitrust inquiry, as reported by the Financial Times.

The investigation encompasses a wide spectrum of the US tech giant’s services, including cloud computing, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence, according to reports from Bloomberg and other media sites on Wednesday.

The FTC is reportedly investigating if Microsoft’s public cloud, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity product lines are among the various areas of the business where antitrust legislation may have been broken.

According to The New York Times, the FTC is especially interested in how Microsoft combines its cloud products with its office and security capabilities.

READ ALSO: Microsoft unveils 10 new AI agents to boost sales, finance, supply chain operations 

This development comes four months after it was alleged that the European Union data protection standards were allegedly violated by Microsoft’s subsidiary Xandr as a result of a complaint backed by the privacy advocacy group Noyb. 

The organization threw its support behind an anonymous Italian who has formally complained against Xandr to the nation’s data protection agency through the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

If the legal action prevails, it could lead to fines of up to 4% of Xandr’s parent entity Microsoft’s global annual turnover, with Noyb specifically alleging that the company is breaching Articles 5(1)(c) and (d); 12(2); 15 and 17 of the GDPR.

The complaint alleges that Xandr is using inaccurate information about people and has violated the rights of individuals in the bloc whose information is processed to create profiles that are sold through programmatic ad auctions for micro-targeted advertising. Xandr is also accused of failing to maintain transparency.

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