Microsoft is investigating the French Antitrust Authority as it fears that U.S. tech giants are reducing the use of Bing technology in their search engine products.
If Microsoft abused the power of search engine joint organizations in the niche and had asked competitor operators about their agreements, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Paris-based watchdog wonders if Microsoft has unfairly dumped bad search results on smaller engines that rely on Bing’s huge library of search results. The move could ultimately pave the way for formal charges and high fines from Washington-based Redmond.
Although Microsoft does not dominate the market for universal search engines, which is a firm position Alphabet Inc.’s Google is a major player in the group’s market. In the past, several smaller search engines active in Europe have relied on Bing’s business search results, including Duckduckgo, Qwant and Ecosia.
A Microsoft spokesman said the company is working fully with the investigation by French supervisory agencies. Authorities declined to comment.
French regulators, led by former central banker Benoît C-uré, have been scrutinizing the actions of some of the world’s largest technology companies recently. Last year, it fined Google for 250 million euros (USD 258 million or about Rs 22.38 crore) and involved AI in Big Tech’s businesses. The agency also led a far-reaching case at Nvidia Corp. to realize potential abuse practices in the graphics processing unit market and warned Apple about app distribution on iPhones.
Microsoft has conducted serious antitrust reviews in Europe in recent years, in addition to ongoing investigations into its video conferencing software team, and potential distortions from the competition to tie applications to its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 packages.
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