The Autorite de la Concurrence of France officially rejected a complaint lodged by the French-based search engine, Qwant, accusing Microsoft of misusing its monopoly in the search and online advertising sector.
The regulator alleged that Qwant was unable to provide compelling enough evidence to back its claims. It also refused to implement the provisional actions that Qwant had sought against the U.S tech giant.
Claims and Expected Rejection of Qwant
Qwant, which had been using Microsoft Bing to drive its search and news results, had leveled allegations on Microsoft that Microsoft had been:
- Invoking restrictions of exclusivity on search result and ads.
- Inhibiting the development of the search engine by Qwant.
- Sabotaging its own artificial intelligence development.
- Preferring its services when making search advertising allocations.
Last month, the firm already made it clear that it had anticipated that the decision was to be made against the company and it would appeal or appeal to higher authorities.
The Decision is Welcome at Microsoft
Microsoft was pleased with the decision and said: “We are pleased with the decision and we are determined to offer high-quality search services and innovation to the consumers and partners in France and the rest of Europe, a company spokesperson said.
A Competitive Beyond Qwant Market
Microsoft is a major participant in the search engines syndication industry and it provides search results to a number of European competitors, such as Ecosia, DuckDuckGo, and Lilo. The smaller search engines have been enabled to use this ecosystem and not to offer their own full-scale indexing structures.
Qwant is yet to make another public statement after the announcement by the regulator.
