US tech giant Microsoft is facing competition law scrutiny not only in Europe but also in its home country of America. The company is allegedly offering free services to the U.S. government in an effort to undercut its competitors and strengthen its ties with the government.
Microsoft offering free services to the US government has angered competitors!
According to a report by ProPublica, at a summit held at the White House in 2021, The company pledged to provide the US federal government with a range of cybersecurity services worth a total of $1.5 billion. The program, known as the “White House Offer,” gave government agencies access to the Microsoft 365 Government G5 security suite. The G5 suite is renowned for its security and compliance functionality and costs 60% more than the G3 version.
The report claims that through this offer, Microsoft increased government agencies’ reliance on Microsoft services. In this way, the company allegedly gains an advantage over major competitors such as Amazon Web Services (AWS).
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Steve Faehl, Head of Federal Security Technology at Microsoft, said, “Our goal was solely to respond to the complex cyber threats facing federal agencies. This commitment was purely to respond to the government’s urgent request,” Steve Faehl, Head of Federal Security Technology at Microsoft, said in a statement.
Giant companies like Amazon are not happy about this. They criticize Microsoft’s approach and argue that it has a negative impact on market competition. They argue that Microsoft’s promotion of cloud services in this way reduces the diversity of technology procurement by government agencies.
A White House spokesperson clarified: “This was a voluntary commitment by Microsoft and they take full responsibility for it.” Future legal reviews will determine whether these strategies comply with competition rules.
