South Korea's antitrust watchdog green lights Microsoft's practice of bundling Copilot

South Korea’s antitrust watchdog, the Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), has suspended its investigation into Microsoft’s business practice of bundling Copilot with Windows and Microsoft 365 software. The company was accused of raising prices by 30 to 40 percent for new users who had no option to opt out. 

South Korea’s antitrust watchdog finds no issue with Microsoft bundling Copilot with its products

The news, first reported by a South Korean news outlet, The Chosun Daily, highlights that the Korean antitrust watchdog launched the investigation into Redmond giant’s practice after concerns were raised during a National Assembly audit in October last year. 

Earlier this year, South Korea’s antitrust watchdog conducted a meeting with Microsoft representatives. After that meeting, the KTC reportedly concluded that it was “difficult to determine a violation of the law.” This eventually led the antitrust agency to effectively end the probe.

Per the internal documents, the KFTC justified its decision by pointing to competition in the global AI market. The KFTC argued that Microsoft isn’t dominant in the global AI market. In its reference, the agency highlighted the 59.7 percent global market share of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

South Korea’s antitrust agency also added that Google Gemini is a strong player in the global AI competition. After investigating, the agency concluded that Microsoft’s bundling Copilot within Microsoft 365 products or Windows isn’t a problem. 

The KFTC’s decision hasn’t pleased many

However, legal experts in South Korea have opposed this decision by the antitrust watchdog. Lee Bong-eui, a law professor at Seoul National University, said it’s wrong to judge South Korea’s market based only on global AI trends. He further believes that Microsoft’s dominance in local office software is quite concerning. 

Besides South Korea, Microsoft’s bundling practices are under antitrust scrutiny in the United States, where regulators are investigating whether it harms competition.