Microsoft Business Software Ecosystem Faces UK Competition Probe

Microsoft's Business Software Ecosystem Faces UK Antitrust Probe

Microsoft Corp.'s business software ecosystem is set to face a UK antitrust probe starting in May, with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate whether licensing practices for products such as Word, Excel, and AI app Copilot require tighter regulation.

The CMA has announced that it will open an investigation to determine whether Microsoft must be given strategic market status, which would allow the regulator to impose penalties and steps to improve competition. This decision comes after the CMA expressed "wider concerns" about Microsoft's position in the business software market, which includes productivity software, operating systems, and database management.

The CMA sees the embedding of advanced AI technologies into familiar workplace tools as a pivotal moment for the sector. The investigation is part of the CMA's ongoing efforts to ensure that the UK's cloud services market remains competitive. The watchdog has been working with Microsoft and Amazon Web Services Inc. to improve competition in the cloud services market.

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According to the CMA, customers spent £10.5 billion ($13.9 billion) on cloud services in 2024, with spending growing by nearly 30% each year since 2020. The CMA has previously investigated the cloud services market and found that Microsoft and AWS each cornered a significant share of the UK's customer spend.

Microsoft has been working to improve its cloud services, with a focus on switching and interoperability. In a statement, Brad Smith, the company's vice-chairman, noted that the cloud market remains intensely competitive, with large investments by Amazon, Google, Oracle, and new entrants. He also highlighted that Google, a complainant in this review, grew faster in the last quarter of 2025 than Amazon or Microsoft.