German anti-trust authority moves towards investigation into Microsoft after complaint by Nextcloud

Tech giant now subject to extended abuse control, opening the door to prohibitions on anti-competitive behaviour

Berlin, September 30, 2024 – After a complaint by Nextcloud in November 2021, the German anti-trust authorities (Bundeskartellamt) have initiated the first steps towards an investigation into anti-competitive behaviour by Microsoft, including the bundling of online storage service OneDrive in Windows. The company from Redmond is now designated as having ‘paramount significance for competition across markets’, a position that warrants stricter oversight for the next 5 years and opens the door to prohibitions to protect fair competition.

Since the complaint from Nextcloud and about 30 other small European tech companies was filed in 2021, Microsoft has increased its anti-competitive behaviour. The company proceeded with integrating OneDrive deeper into Windows and making it harder to use Windows without OneDrive account. It also blocked attempts by Nextcloud to gain access to interoperability API’s that would allow Nextcloud users to save files to Nextcloud from Microsoft Office apps. The European Commission has not made any noticeable progress on the complaint filed with them, but the start of an investigation based on another, later complaint about Teams bundling with Microsoft 365 has already resulted in some actions by Microsoft to placate the Commission.

Over the last 3 years Nextcloud has provided extensive documentation and other evidence of anti-competitive behaviour by the tech giant, and today, the German antitrust authorities (Bundeskartellamt) have announced that in a first step in the anti-trust investigation Microsoft will be under special supervision. Quoting from their press release: 

The validity of the Bundeskartellamt’s decision is limited to five years in accordance with statutory provisions. Within this period Microsoft is subject to special abuse control by the Bundeskartellamt in Germany as set out in Section 19a (2) GWB. No decision has yet been taken on the initiation of possible proceedings to examine specific practices employed by Microsoft.

The Bundeskartellamt will publish a summary of its decision shortly.

Now this designation is applied, the Bundeskartellamt can prohibit Microsoft from engaging in anti-competitive practices. Nextcloud welcomes this step and is looking forward to see a thorough investigation into the anti-competitive behaviour of the tech giant. 

Frank Karlitschek, CEO and founder of Nextcloud:

« Over the past three years, Nextcloud has submitted extensive documentation and other evidence of anti-competitive behavior by Microsoft. The Federal Cartel Office today determined that Microsoft has particular market power. This is an important step to prohibit future anti-competitive practices by the US company. »

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Nextcloud presents a unified, comprehensive platform addressing collaboration needs through document sharing, real-time editing, video conferencing, calendaring, mail and other capabilities. This singular approach across mobile, web and desktop interfaces provides a superior user experience and increased productivity.

It is designed with an open, modular architecture that enables organizations to optimize their content collaboration both within and outside their organization. More information on nextcloud.com.

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