JFTC Opens an Investigation and Seeks Information and Comments from Third Parties Concerning the Suspected Violation of the Antimonopoly Act by Microsoft Corporation, etc.

The Japan Fair Trade Commission (hereinafter referred to as the " JFTC ") has opened an investigation on the suspected violation of the Antimonopoly Act by Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft Japan Co., Ltd. and Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited (hereinafter collectively referred to as " Microsoft Corporation, etc. "). As part of this investigation, the JFTC, today, also decided to seek information and comments from third parties about the suspected violation as described below. The JFTC seeks information and comments in the initial stage of the case investigation following the policy statement "Towards the Active Promotion of Competition Policy in response to Socioeconomic Changes as represented by Digitalization - Coordination and Strengthening of Policy Advocacy and Law Enforcement-" which was published in June 2022 ( here ). It should be noted that the JFTC has not reached any conclusions at this stage as to whether or not the Antimonopoly Act has been violated.

1. Suspected Violation of the Antimonopoly Act Subject to Submission of Information and Comments

Microsoft Corporation, etc., which provides cloud service known as Microsoft Azure (hereinafter referred to as "Azure"), is suspected to prevent enterprises which provide their own cloud services competing with Azure (hereinafter referred to as "Competing Cloud Services") from obtaining transactions related to provision of cloud services, by engaging in the following conduct, in relation to use of cloud services, towards enterprises that have actually obtained or may potentially obtain license to use Microsoft's software or services, named as Windows Server, Windows Client, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft 365, Visual Studio, etc. (hereinafter referred to as the "Services"):

(1) not allowing them to use the Services in combination with Competing Cloud Services; or

(2) modifying or setting trade terms of the Services so that costs for the users, etc. are increased when the Services are used in combination with Competing Cloud Services compared to the case in which the Services are used on Azure.

2. Submission of Information and Comments

Details regarding seeking information and comments are provided here. Please note that we accept information and comments in Japanese only.