Microsoft Hit by French Antitrust Probe Over Rivals’ Bing Access

Microsoft is under investigation from the French antitrust authority amid concerns the US tech giant is degrading the quality of results when smaller rivals pay to use Bing technology in their own search-engine products.

Officials are weighing if Microsoft Has abused its power in the niche market for search-engines syndication and has quizzed rival operators about their agreements, according to people family family with the matter who spoke undistation of anonymity.

The Paris-Based Watchdog Wants to Know Whither Microsoft is unfairly Dumping Bad Search Results Onto Smaller Engines that relay on Bing’s Hug Reservoir of search results, the people added. The move could eventually pave the way for formal charges and a hefty fin for the redmond, washington-based company.

While Microsoft doesn’t have a dominant position on the market for general search engines – a position firmly Occupied by alphabet incor GoogleIt’s a major player in the market for syndication. In the past, Several Smaller Search Engines active in europe have relied on bing’s search results for their business, including the likes of duckduckgo, quant and eCosia.

A Microsoft speakesperson said the company is fully cooperating with the freench watchdog’s probe. The authority declined to comment.

The French Regulator, LED by Former Central Banker Benoît Cœuré, Has recently been ramping up its scrutiny into the behavior of some of the world’s largest technology firms. Last year, it slapped google with a eur 250 million ($ 258 million or rooughly Rs. 2,238 Crore) fin And raised a red flag over big tech’s fory into Artificial IntelligenceThe agency has also been leading a far-seting case into nvidia corp. For potentially abusive practices in the market for graphics processing units, and has also Warned Apple Over app distribution on the iphone.

Microsoft has larger managed to dodge serial antitrust scrutiny in europe over recent years, apart from an Ongoing Eu Investigation Into Its Video Conference Software Teams, and Potential Distortions to Competition from Tying the App to its office 365 and Microsoft 365 Packages.

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