Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what discussions his Department has had with the Competition and Markets Authority regarding opening a strategic market status investigation into Microsoft and its software licensing practices.

The Department for Business and Trade engages regularly with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on competition issues. The CMA is independent of Government, and decisions on initiating strategic market status investigations (SMS) are a matter for the CMA Board. The CMA has announced that it will open a SMS investigation into Microsoft’s business software ecosystem, expected to launch in May 2026.