Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard seems to have had a domino effect. The Federal Cartel Office (FCO) filed a lawsuit to investigate the company’s work in Germany.
Yesterday, some news came from Germany, after some members of the US Parliament reported that Sony had unfairly damaged the XBox. The German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) investigated whether the company violated antitrust law and filed a lawsuit so that an investigation could be opened.
Did Microsoft screw the beehive?
FCO chairman Andreas Mundt said in a statement:
“With its Windows and Office products, Microsoft has a longstanding and very strong position in operating systems and office software. Based on this, the company has continually expanded its product range for both business customers and consumers.
More recently, we’ve seen a strong rise in the importance of cloud services Azure and OneDrive, often linked to other Microsoft applications, and the resounding success of Teams, a software for video conferencing and collaboration.
In addition, Microsoft is active in other areas, such as gaming with Xbox, career networks with the LinkedIn service, or searching the Internet with the search engine Bing.
The company has recently attracted attention with the integration of AI applications. In light of this, there are good reasons to examine whether Microsoft is crucial to cross-market competition.
Such a finding would allow us to take action at an early stage and ban potential anticompetitive practices.”