Germany: Announced investigation into Microsoft to determine status as a company of paramount significance for competition across markets

On 28 March 2023, the German Competition Authority (Bundeskartellamt) announced its investigation into Microsoft in order to determine whether the company was of paramount significance for competition across markets. This determination is the first step of a two-step procedure introduced in Section 19a of the German Competition Act at the beginning of 2021. After a company is determined to have such paramount significance for competition, the Bundeskartellamt can sanction companies guilty of anti-competitive business practices. According to the Bundeskartellamt, companies existing as a digital ecosystem across markets are generally considered companies of paramount significance. In the case of Microsoft, it is positioned in the areas of operating systems, office software, cloud services, gaming, and career networks, as well as the search engine market.