A Chinese regulator has given Microsoft Corp 20 days to reply to its concerns about the antitrust implications of its marketing of its Windows and Office software.
The State Administration for Industry and Commerce said in a short statement on its website that it questioned Microsoft’s senior director for strategic sourcing David Chen and would expect a written reply from the company within 20 days.
SAIC also repeated that it suspected the company has not fully disclosed issues relating to the compatibility of the software and the operating system, according to Reuters.
Microsoft said in a statement of its own that it was “serious about complying with China’s laws and committed to addressing SAIC’s questions and concerns.”
Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella is expected to visit China later September, although there are no precise details of that trip yet.
Microsoft is only one of a number of international companies to feel the force of a multi-fronted Chinese clampdown on perceived price-gouging in recent weeks. Another regulator, the National Development and Reform commission, is looking into suspected price-rigging by chipmaker Qualcomm Inc (QCOM), while international carmakers have been hit with a flurry of fines for rigging prices for spare parts and after-sales services.
The crackdown has happened concurrent with a drop in foreign direct investment into China, which some analysts have blamed on the authorities’ clampdown. Others, however, see it as driven more by the slowdown in economic growth as the country tries to re-orient its economy more toward the domestic consumer and away from heavy industry and exports, as well as by political tensions over territorial dispute with Asian neighbors, who are large inward investors.
Over the first seven months of the year, FDI into was down 0.4% from the same period in 2013, and FDI from the U.S. in particular was down $17%. Overall, July’s figure of $7.8 billion was the lowest monthly figure in two years.
