Antitrust enforcers at the Federal Trade Commission have opened a wide-ranging investigation into Microsoft’s business practices, launching a major legal project that a new Trump administration must take up or abandon.
The FTC is investigating Microsoft’s cloud computing business and related product lines such as artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, according to a person who was not authorized to publicly discuss the details of the probe and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
It’s the latest action in more than three years of aggressive antitrust enforcement led by FTC Chair Lina Khan, who was elevated to lead the agency by President Joe Biden after he took office promising to tighten scrutiny of monopolistic behavior by Big Tech companies .
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Khan’s FTC already lost one antitrust battle with Microsoft last year when a federal judge refused to block its $69 billion takeover of video game company Activision Blizzard.
The case would delve deeper into the core of Microsoft’s business in a way the company has not seen in the US since its antitrust showdown with the Justice Department in the 1990s.
Bloomberg News first reported on the investigation last week.
The case will only move forward if President-elect Donald Trump decides to lead the FTC to continue the investigation and take it to court. Some analysts expect a lighter approach to the tech industry under Trump, although new Vice President JD Vance has praised Khan’s work.
