The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that it will launch a strategic market status investigation into Microsoft. In this context, it will be examined whether the way the company offers Windows, Word, Excel, Teams, Copilot and related Office services together has anti-competitive consequences. While it is stated that the investigation will officially begin this month, especially the enterprise software market and cloud licensing practices are among the focus areas of the CMA. The institution is expected to complete the evaluation process by February 2026.
In a statement published by Reuters, CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell said that the main aim of the investigation is to understand how the market is shaped. Cardell stated that Microsoft’s position in the market and what impact the company’s applications have on competition, innovation and price balance for institutions in the United Kingdom will be evaluated. In addition, reminding that hundreds of thousands of people use Microsoft’s business software, Cardell emphasized that the investigation concerns not only the technology sector but also a wide range of public and private sector organizations.
In its statement regarding the process, Microsoft stated that it was ready to work “quickly and constructively” with the CMA. The company stated that it will cooperate with the institution to ensure that the investigation is carried out properly. Despite this, the scope of the investigation brings to the agenda once again similar antitrust disputes that Microsoft has had with regulatory authorities, especially in Europe, in recent years.
Microsoft’s Teams and cloud licensing practices are on the agenda again
It is noteworthy that the CMA focuses especially on the provision of the Teams application with Office packages and cloud licensing policies. Microsoft aggressively expanded Teams to the corporate communications side in the post-pandemic period. However, some rival companies, especially Slack, argued that integrating Teams into the Office package created an unfair advantage. The European Union also initiated an investigation against Microsoft for similar reasons, and the company agreed to offer Teams separately from the Office package in some regions.
In addition, licensing policies on the cloud side have been a matter of debate for a long time. Criticisms that it has become more costly to run Microsoft software, especially on rival cloud services other than Azure, have attracted the attention of regulatory bodies in different countries. The CMA’s review in this area could cover not just Office applications but also the company’s overall enterprise software ecosystem.
The definition of strategic market status does not directly mean a violation decision. Despite this, such a classification may provide the CMA with more comprehensive intervention powers in the future. If deemed necessary, the Authority may take regulatory steps in areas such as Microsoft’s product packaging format, licensing terms or data portability. The outcome of the investigation could therefore be decisive not only for Microsoft, but also for the overall structure of the enterprise software market in the UK.
On the other hand, Microsoft has recently been integrating its artificial intelligence-supported services such as Copilot more tightly into the Office ecosystem. How these tools, which run within Word, Excel and Teams, are offered and priced to enterprise customers may also attract regulators’ attention. Bundling artificial intelligence features with basic productivity software is seen as one of the topics that can further expand competition discussions in the future.
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