China News recently reported that the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) confirmed that Microsoft is being investigated for antitrust violations. SAIC did a “spot check” against Microsoft branches in four major cities without any pre-notice. The case against Microsoft was based on “incomplete information disclosure” of problems in software packages like Windows and Office. The damages include compatibility issues, unlawful bundled sales, “file verification issues” and more importantly, price gouging. SAIC “suspects” Microsoft is conducting anti-competitive behavior. Many western countries have associated this investigation with the Snowden incident. However some Chinese legal experts expressed their disagreement by suggesting that SAIC was only doing its job to enforce the Chinese antitrust law. Microsoft issued a short announcement promising active cooperation with the investigation. Currently foreign vendors dominate the technologies deployed in key Chinese industries such as finance, telecommunication, energy, and civil aviation. The China News report concluded that domestic vendors will have “expanded room to compete” after this investigation concludes.
Source: China News, July 30, 2014
http://finance.chinanews.com/it/2014/07-30/6438951.shtml