Microsoft Under Investigation by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for Abusive Tactics

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Apr 01, 2026

Everyone seems to be talking about Oracle today, but this one slipped under the radar. From AFP:

Britain's competition watchdog announced plans on Tuesday to launch an investigation into Microsoft's business software systems, under new measures targeting the dominance of technology giants.
The Competition and Markets Authority said the probe would assess whether the US tech company should be handed "strategic market status" (SMS), subjecting it to special requirements to improve competition.

The investigation, set to begin in May, focuses on Microsoft's business tools, including Windows, Word, Excel, Teams and Copilot, which are used by hundreds of thousands of UK businesses and organisations.

The CMA said it could lead to action over concerns that Microsoft's software licensing practices may reduce competition in cloud computing.

What's noteworthy is that this is "set to begin in May". They seem to obsess too much over buzzwords that are used an excuse for giant losses. █

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

What EPO Staff, the Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO), and Europe Want and Need: Who should be served by patents?
SLAPP Censorship - Part 49 Out of 200: Two Americans, One Case, Recycled for Low Budget at Brett Wilson LLP and 5RB Barristers: Change one character, bill the client tens or hundreds of thousands of US dollars
GAFAM Decided to Stop 'Old' Formats From Working, Format-Shifting Treadmills Resemble the Certificate Cartel Keeping Everybody Forever Chasing Rotations: Lots of extra chores because those who control the browsers decided that "too much choice" is bad, so they'll break "old" sites and make multimedia that's "old" not work anymore (not playable)
Nothing But Vapourware Since XBox Leadership Ousted and Mass Layoffs Will Come Soon: We just don't know the exact date/s... yet
Gemini Links 18/04/2026: Guix and WikiReader: Links for the day
Network Maintenance Next Friday: We must be doing a terrific job so far given how much money gets spent trying to silence us
"The Work-to-rule is Having Effect" at the European Patent Office (EPO): The media knows how to contact SUEPO, but it's clearly not doing it
Improving the Sites, Not Bloating Them: Sites need to evolve over time. Many conflate evolution with bloat (as if more complexity is desirable).
SLAPP Censorship - Part 50 Out of 200: The Time Staff of Law Firm Burgess Mee Was Showing Up in Letters Sent for a Serial Strangler From Microsoft: Family-friendly? No.
Next Week the Star of the "EPO Reality TV Show" Will Likely be Absent (Absconding the Tough Reality of Widespread Unrest): He tarnishes the legacy of that surname and the country's image by spouting out lies and hurling abusive insults (lots of the "f word") at staff
Speculations That IBM's CEO is on His Way Out: IBM has mass layoffs, but the media is not covering this [...] IBM is a company in the loo, a firm in a state of rapid disintegration
Slopwatch Was Deprecated, It's Not Coming Back: LLMs that produce many words very fast (and waste a lot of energy in the process) cannot compete with authentic news sites
WELCOME to The Cyber|Show @ Geminispace!: Andy set things up this past week
Links 18/04/2026: Microsoft's PR Department (Waggener Edstrom) and CEO's Wife Buys NPR (BillPR, Now BallmerPR) as Independent/Public Service Media Dims Down: Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/04/2026: Chronic Pain and CodingFont Game: Links for the day
Links 17/04/2026: "I Hate the Internet" and Fake Wallet in Apple App Store: Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 17, 2026: IRC logs for Friday, April 17, 2026
European Patent Office (EPO) Strikes and Other Industrial Actions Are Working: Patent Application Grants Have Collapsed: Even before the strikes happened any day of the week
Pension Contribution Increases as Another Attack on Compensation for EPO Staff (Mostly Patent Examiners): Pension contribution increases!
Almost 1,000 IBM Layoffs Not Newsworthy (Nobody Covers It), Unlike When Snap Does It and Mentions a Celebrated - or Reviled - Buzzword: not a word regarding IBM layoffs
Behind the Scenes With Richard Stallman: If you support his ideas, even if you dislike him as a person, then you'll welcome his ability to speak about those ideas
Gemini Links 17/04/2026: "Many Problems and Inequities in the Legal System", "No Place to Hide": Links for the day
Links 17/04/2026: SRA Breaks Its Own Rules as Solicitor Attempts Suicide, IPv6 Barely Hits 50% After 20+ Years: Links for the day
ActBlue former IT boss disappearance: Decklin Foster & Debian, Harvard suicide lab, Chris Gleason is wife, whistleblower or both?: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/04/2026: Getting competent in NixOS and Alhena 5.5.6 Released: Links for the day
Links 17/04/2026: "We Cannot Lose Sight of Ukraine" and "When Leaders Should Resign": Links for the day
GizChina Appears to Have Become a Slopfarm, I.e. Fake News Site With Fake Text: Don't waste a moment reading LLM slop, as at the very least it rewards plagiarism [...] Deemed to be slop also by two human beings, not just two scanners
Massive, Cross-Site Strike at the EPO Today: There's coordination across sites for maximal pressure
Dr. Andy Farnell Says "AI" is "Only a Marketing Term" for Things That Exist for "Entertainment Purposes Only": distortion or misuse of the term (now buzzword/s) "AI"
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 16, 2026: IRC logs for Thursday, April 16, 2026
Strikes at the EPO Carry on, Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO) Increases Pressure Ahead of Technical and Operational Support Committee (TOSC) Meeting Next Week: the local section The Hague (or SUEPO TH) wants to rally many staff members
Gemini Links 16/04/2026: LLM Nuisance, Identity Systems (Surveillance), and Why Windows is Failing: Links for the day
'Going Offline' is Not Primitivism: Computers are good at automation, but people are not robots
The Register MS Has Published Article With "AI" 18 Times in it, "Cloud" 9 Times. It Got Paid to Do This.: What happened to journalism?
In Europe, More People Turn to Russia for Answers, Not Microsoft: The future of computing doesn't look pretty
SLAPP Censorship - Part 48 Out of 200: Brett Wilson LLP and 5RB Copy-Pasting Bogus Claims for Violent Americans (Microsoft) Who Tell Women to Kill Themselves: Microsoft's Graveley telling his partner to kill herself is probably a crime
The EFF Is Hardly Doing Anything Anymore: Our series about the EFF has been brewing for over 2 years already
Microsoft Uses Slop to Bribe (at No Cost) Nations That Otherwise Would Move to GNU/Linux and IBM is Forcing Red Hat Staff to Use Slop: Life it too short to waste "consuming" slop
Links 16/04/2026: Roblox Launching ‘Roblox Kids’ Accounts and "Deepfake Nudes Crisis in Schools": Links for the day
Red Hat Staff: IBM Red Hat Laid Off About 400 Engineers, the Media Did Not Cover This: The media is not doing its job or doing a really shoddy job
Gemini Links 16/04/2026: Nocturnal Pulse, Unpersoned Outlaws, and Monaspace Lagrange Fontpacks: Links for the day
Richard Stallman Lecture in GDC Auditorium in Austin, Texas: corporate power could not 'cancel' the man
It's Not About the Head, It's About the Masters (and Funding): Regardless of who the OSI claims to be its leader, its masters are Microsoft, just follow the money
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 15, 2026: IRC logs for Wednesday, April 15, 2026