China seeks information in 'monopoly' probe

SHANGHAI: The Chinese government has asked US technology giant Microsoft to clarify ‘major issues’ regarding a monopoly case, officials said today, confirming that it was still pursuing a probe which emerged in 2014.

The State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), one of the government bodies which enforces the country’s anti-monopoly law, first said in July of that year that it had built a case against Microsoft over its Windows operating system and the Office suite of programmes, after it raided the US tech giant’s offices in China.

The SAIC expanded the probe into Microsoft’s media player and browser the following month.

China has launched probes against a number of high-profile foreign firms in recent years.

Last February, US mobile chip firm Qualcomm said it would pay nearly a billion dollars to end a long-running anti-trust probe in China. State media have previously blasted Microsoft for its share of the operating system market in China, saying it forms a ‘de facto monopoly’.