Microsoft rivals line up to tell UK watchdog where the software behemoth hurt them

The UK Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) investigation into Microsoft's business software ecosystem has attracted a full range of comments from the unsurprising to the hyperlocal. The watchdog is looking at whether product bundling, the alleged embedding of in-house AI products like CoPilot, and licensing practices are limiting UK customer choice. Asking for submissions from customers and rivals allows the regulator to weigh Microsoft's arguments against the concerns and grievances of those customers and rivals. The regulator has now published those comments. Google reckons [PDF] Microsoft is "effectively a gatekeeper and uses its entrenched position to steer captive users toward its own cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions," while Killinghall Parish Council complained [PDF] about an unplanned annual cost of 1,100 due to the purchase of additional Microsoft services "to use Microsoft Teams effectively." The submission stated: "We are concerned that Microsoft's refusal to integrate fully with third-party products creates unnecessary additional costs for Parish Councils." Other comments came from the Browser Choice Alliance [PDF], which stated: "Microsoft's tactics leverage its dominant Windows OS and M365 productivity software suite to frustrate users' choice of browsers." Mozilla complained about Windows 11's habit of defaulting to Edge, particularly during the upgrade flow, and Collabora called on the CMA to "explicitly include both APIs and document format standards (Office Open XML or OOXML) within the scope of the Productivity Software Suite description." "Because Microsoft's own applications handle OOXML formats as de facto standards with undocumented complexities, a significant technical barrier is created for third-party suites trying to interoperate seamlessly." And so it went on, with other businesses such as messaging service Element and browser vendor Vivaldi weighing in, and groups including Open Web Advocacy and the Open Cloud Coalition (previously described by Microsoft as a Google lobby group) having their say. For its part, Microsoft stated [PDF] that it "faces substantial competitive constraints across all five digital activities." In productivity software, it said the likes of Google Workspace and LibreOffice compete "vigorously." Windows faces competition from macOS and Linux, and Linux is a far more widely used server operating system. Databases, such as PostgreSQL and MySQL, compete with SQL Server, and Okta makes a decent fist of Identity and Access Management. Furthermore, "Microsoft's commitment to openness and interoperability is real, deep and growing," and, significantly, the company stated, "AI is making competition more intense, not less." The CMA's investigation could result in a Strategic Market Status (SMS) designation for Microsoft, which would allow the CMA to implement interventions to support competition. The wide-ranging investigation kicked off in May and is looking into Microsoft's provision of business software to UK organizations, as well as bundling, defaults, and interoperability. The CMA stated that it was important for customers to be able to "mix and match software and AI services from a broad range of competing suppliers." And then there's licensing. An SMS designation would allow the CMA to intervene on a concern arising from its cloud market investigation - Microsoft's alleged use of software licensing to reduce cloud competition. The process has a few more months to go. The proposed decision will be published for consultation in October, and the final decision report (and any SMS decision notice) will be published in February 2027. (R)