Rates on competing software platforms are under scrutiny
The Japanese Competition Authority has carried out a surprise inspection of Microsoft’s headquarters in Tokyo as part of an investigation into alleged violations of Japanese antitrust law. According to sources familiar with the investigation, cited by public broadcaster NHK, the US IT giant is suspected of having applied discriminatory commercial conditions, charging higher license fees for the use of its software – including the Microsoft 365 suite and the Windows operating system – on competing cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, compared to its own Azure service.
The Commission considers that such practices may constitute an abuse of a dominant position in the global software market, with the effect of unduly hindering the acquisition of customers by rivals in the rapidly expanding cloud computing sector. The investigation will also verify the ways in which these commercial policies were defined and the relationships between the Japanese subsidiary and the US parent company. The provision is part of a context of tighter controls by the Japanese antitrust authority against large technology companies, particularly US ones: in 2024, inspections were conducted at Amazon Japan for alleged unfair commercial practices, while in 2025 Google was formally invited to stop requiring smartphone manufacturers to install their search and navigation applications in advance. Microsoft Japan said in a statement that it is willing to fully cooperate with the Commission’s requests.
