TapTechNews September 30th news, according to Reuters, tonight Beijing time, the German Federal Cartel Office announced that it has listed Microsoft as a 'company of extremely important significance to market competition', marking that Microsoft has joined the club of tech giants subject to the'special abuse control system'.
TapTechNews note: The German Federal Cartel Office is responsible for enforcing Germany's antitrust law and supervising the competitive behavior between enterprises to prevent monopoly and unfair competition and ensure the healthy operation of the market.
The new classification means that Microsoft will be subject to stricter supervision and may face injunctions due to anti-competitive behavior. Its new power applies to the whole of Microsoft, not just individual services or products.
Andreas Mundt, director of the Federal Cartel Office, said: 'Many of Microsoft's products are ubiquitous and indispensable in companies, public institutions and private households. Microsoft's ecosystem is now more intertwined and stronger than ever before.'
The cartel office said that this means Microsoft will now be subject to stricter regulation and may face anti-competitive behavior injunctions.
A Microsoft spokesman said: 'We recognize our responsibility to support a healthy competitive environment, and we will strive to take a proactive, collaborative and responsible attitude in our cooperation with the German Federal Cartel Office.'
According to TapTechNews' previous report, in June this year, the European Commission accused Microsoft of illegally associating its chat and video application Teams with Office products, thus giving it an unfair advantage in the competition with competitors such as Slack.
Related reading:
'The European Union accuses Microsoft Office 365 Suite of bundling Teams suspected of monopoly'