Qwant Made a Partnership With Microsoft, It Already Regrets This and Has Filed Antitrust Complaint Against Microsoft

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Nov 28, 2025

One-way, one-sided partnership in which only Microsoft stands to gain

On Thanksgiving Day not much of the American media is active, but some European or international media covered important news [1-8] about Qwant, which had sold out to Microsoft, learning the hard way not to rely on Microsoft. There are also technical reasons to avoid Qwant.

Relying on Microsoft is always utterly foolish [1, 2]. The company can barely even rely on itself; every month this year it has mass layoffs and this article was published on Thanksgiving Day:

Talk about bad timing and poor journalism. It's more than twice as bad as they put it. But they rely on official statements (lies) from Microsoft, which sank deep into debt [1, 2] in spite of the humongous layoffs. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. French competition regulator dismisses Qwant’s antitrust complaint against Microsoft

   Qwant, a France-based search engine, had accused Microsoft of abusing its dominant position by imposing exclusivity restrictions that limited Qwant’s ability to offer search results and advertising independently.

   The French regulator said Qwant failed to provide evidence that was convincing enough to support its claims. It also declined Qwant’s request to place a temporary injunction against Microsoft’s practices.

   According to the official statement published by the Autorité, Qwant alleged that Microsoft engaged in “exclusive supply arrangements” and “tying” by only letting Qwant use Microsoft’s search results and advertising tools together. Qwant argued that this limited its ability to build its own search engine and its own AI tools.

2. Search syndication and online advertising sectors: the Autorité rejects the complaint on the merits filed by Qwant against Microsoft and the request for interim measures

3. French Competition Authority Rejects Qwant’s Complaint Against Microsoft

4. French authorities reject complain against Microsoft

5. French Business Competition Authority Rejects Qwant's Lawsuit Against Microsoft

6. French antitrust watchdog dismisses complaint filed against Microsoft

7. Microsoft escapes French competition probe over Qwant allegations

8. French antitrust watchdog dismisses complaint filed against Microsoft