Microsoft is asking the Federal Trade Commission's inspector general to investigate whether the agency's leadership improperly leaked news of its antitrust investigation into the company and to make its findings public.
Bloomberg first reported that the investigation was underway last week, which The edge Later confirmed. The investigation covers Microsoft's cloud and software licensing businesses, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity offerings.
Now, Microsoft Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Rima Alaily is accusing FTC leadership of leaking details of the investigation in violation of agency rules. own ethical guidelines. The agency instructs new employees that “the existence of an FTC investigation is non-public information,” although it may be disclosed after the Office of Public Affairs determines the purpose of an investigation that was already made public in a press release. or in a government document. Still, the guidelines add that the Commission has authority to make “appropriate disclosures” when it “determines that doing so would be in the public interest.”
Alaily writes that the information and supply in the Bloomberg The story “strongly suggests” that the details came “within the FTC.” She says the story “appears to be consistent with an unfortunate trend over the past two years of strategic leaking of non-public information by the FTC,” citing a report from september of the FTC IG that found a “constantly increasing” volume of “unauthorized disclosures” of non-public information to the press. The FTC declined to comment on Microsoft's letter.
Microsoft says it learned about the FTC's information demand “like the rest of the world, through the Bloomberg story.” Even when he asked FTC staff about the validity of the story, Alaily says, they did not confirm that the demand for information existed, adding that Microsoft has not yet seen the demand for information reported by the press.
The letter is the latest example of a more aggressive approach Microsoft has taken in recent months when it comes to antitrust scrutiny of its business. In October, Alaily accused Google in a blog post of launching an astroturf group “to discredit Microsoft with competition authorities and policymakers and mislead the public.”
Microsoft has flown under the radar in recent years as a target of antitrust lawsuits, while its Big tech peers have been hit with complaints from U.S. regulators. But it is facing increasing scrutiny in both the United States and Europe amid major cybersecurity issues, its acquisition of game studio Activision Blizzard and its partnership with OpenAI. Still, the fate of any existing investigation will ultimately depend on how officials in the incoming Trump administration view the matter.
