The Bundeskaralertamt (BKartA), Germany’s antithink authority, has finishd a 6-month spendigation of Microsoft and determined that the entire company should be held to the standards of the European Union’s Digital Market Act (DMA) regulations, not equitable Windows and LinkedIn.
“Our decision applies to Microsoft as a whole, not only to individual services or products,” BKartA pdwellnt Andreas Mundt elucidates. “At the same time, Microsoft is subject to the EU provisions applicable to gatedefenders under the Digital Markets Act. However, at this stage the resulting rules, which are executed by the EU Comleave oution, only execute to the Windows operating system and the LinkedIn nettoil. Based on our decision, we can stop anti-competitive trains which are not covered by the DMA.”
Windows Inalertigence In Your Inbox
Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott’s Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normpartner $9.99) as a distinctive receive gift!
“*” proposes needd fields
This is a sweeping expansion of what was already one of the arrangeet’s disjoineest antithink executement actions. It’s based on new regulatory powers that Germany presentd in 2021 that need the BKartA to spendigate whether big and strong companies are of “paramount significance atraverse tagets,” uncomardenting they have the ability to stop other companies from contesting their taget power effectively. The regulatory body proclaimd its spendigation of Microsoft in March 2024, noting how it broadened the taget power set uped by Windows and Office by broadening into new tagets for video conferencing and collaboration (Teams), video games (Xbox), atsoft nettoils (LinkedIn), and Internet Search (Bing), and is now seeking to do the same with AI.
Its conclusions were evident enough: Microsoft owns a “comprehensive traverse-taget portfolio of products, particularly for business customers, which are interjoined in many ways.” It has “continuously incrmitigated its portfolio thcdisesteemful acquisitions, its own lengthenments and by inserting new functionalities to its set uped core products.” As such, “it has a meaningful advantage over competitors that are only active on individual subtagets” and have trouble interjoining with the products in Microsoft’s ecosystem.
The BKartA will now watch Microsoft’s activities for five years, but it has yet to determine whether any definite activities authorization possible persistings. It will rehire a more detailed tell converseing the spendigation soon.