Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission, said her agency plans to investigate Microsoft for anticompetitive practices in the cloud market.
A recent report from ProPublica found that the government itself might also have been a target of those anticompetitive practices.
Microsoft offered the government access to its G5 security capabilities free for the first year as well as consultants to help install the products, ProPublica reported.
The goal was to "spin the meter" for Azure and help it gain market dominance over its competitor, Amazon, a sales representative for Microsoft told ProPublica.
However, legal expert James Nagle, who specializes in the federal contracting process, told ProPublica, "This is not truly gratuitous.
Persons:
ProPublica, Lina Khan, James Nagle, Peter Cohan, Steve Faehl
Organizations:
Microsoft, Federal Trade Commission, Babson College, Business, Administration