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microsoft's use of artificial intelligence (ai), among other operations, could face tougher antitrust scrutiny in germany.

germany's antitrust regulator, the german federal cartel office (fco), announced on monday, september 30, local time, that microsoft is a "company crucial to cross-market competition." the foc's classification of microsoft as such a company means that microsoft is subject to germany's special abuse control system. once the foc deems it necessary to intervene, it will take action against microsoft to prohibit the company's "anti-competitive behavior."

this is the fco's identification of microsoft after five years. at this point, microsoft in germany, like apple, amazon, google parent company alphabet and meta, will be subject to stricter monitoring under german competition law that will take effect in 2021. moreover, the foc's new regulatory authority over microsoft applies to microsoft as a whole, not just microsoft's individual services or products.

"microsoft products are ubiquitous and integral to companies, governments, and private households," foc director andreas mundt said in a statement on monday.

the foc statement mentioned that microsoft's windows operating system has been dominant "for many years" and that office products and other software have also established a very strong influence. microsoft is also heavily developing its azure cloud platform and increasingly using ai, including through its copilot ai assistant and its partnership with the development of chatgpt.OpenAI cooperation.

foc emphasized that copilot ai is used in "many parts" of the microsoft ecosystem. the foc also believes that microsoft iscloud computingthe advantage helps the company form partnerships with "highly innovative vendors" because microsoft can "offer their ai models as a service on azure and integrate them into its own products."

“today, the microsoft ecosystem is stronger and more connected than ever before,” mundt said.

a spokesperson for microsoft later stated that microsoft recognizes that the company has a responsibility to support a healthy competitive environment, and the company will strive to be proactive, cooperative, and responsible in its cooperation with the foc.

although the foc stated that it has not yet made any decision on possible lawsuits, commentators believe that the fco's identification allows german government regulators to pay close attention to how microsoft exerts its influence through its activities in the field of generative ai.

microsoft has invested a total of $13 billion in openai. the fco has previously paid attention to the cooperation between microsoft and openai. in november last year, the foc stated that it found that the cooperation between microsoft and openai did not meet the traditional merger review threshold. however, now that the foc has greater authority and can use its power to regulate microsoft more actively, the deal between microsoft and openai may face stricter scrutiny in germany.

on monday this week, microsoft's stock price alternated between rises and falls. it fell more than 0.6% during the day when it hit a daily low in early trading. it turned up at the end of the morning and then fell again in the afternoon. it turned up in the late trading and finally closed up by more than 0.5% in a thrilling way, bidding farewell to last week. the five-two consecutive decline set a new closing low since september 12. in september, it rose by more than 3%, but in the third quarter, it fell by more than 3.7%.