Microsoft is asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether it violated its rules by allegedly sharing information related to an antitrust investigation into the Redmond, Washington, tech giant.
Bloomberg first reported last week that the FTC had sent a request for information to Microsoft as part of a new antitrust investigation.
But in an email to the FTC inspector general sent Tuesday and published on LinkedIn, Microsoft deputy general counsel Rima Araily said Microsoft had not received any formal legal process from the FTC and that Bloomberg had informed the company -I learned about the request for information in an article.
Details in the Bloomberg article indicate that the FTC passed the information on to the news agency, Araily wrote.
“Ironically, almost a week after telling the press about an information demand supposedly issued to Microsoft, we still cannot obtain a copy of this document from the FTC,” Araily wrote in an email.
She added: “I ask you to investigate whether FTC management improperly leaked this confidential information to the press in violation of the agency’s ethics rules and rules of practice.”
We reached out to the FTC, but a spokesperson declined to comment. A Microsoft spokesperson referred Alaily’s email to us.
Alaily said the Bloomberg article “appears to reflect an unfortunate trend over the past two years of the FTC strategically leaking nonpublic information,” citing a recent FTC report that found the number of unauthorized disclosures was on the rise.
“This leak is an unfortunate development for Microsoft, but even more troubling for the integrity of the FTC’s process,” Alaily wrote.
Other media outlets, including the Financial Times, the New York Times, the Associated Press, and The Information, reported on the FTC’s new antitrust investigation into Microsoft. The investigation reportedly focuses on various aspects of the company’s business, including cloud computing services, software licensing and AI partnerships.
Bloomberg noted that the request for information was a “parting shot” for FTC Chair Lina Khan, and that the future of the investigation will depend on her successor under the incoming Trump administration. Khan has led the charge in pushing antitrust action against big tech companies, but it remains to be seen whether that will continue under the new FTC chair.
The FTC opened a separate investigation into Microsoft’s investments in OpenAI in January.
