As European Regulators Investigate Microsoft-OpenAI Partnership, Civil Society Groups Weigh In

BRUSSELS - A coalition of civil society groups including Open Markets, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Mozilla Foundation, SOMO, and more, made a submission to the European Commission concerning Microsoft's $13 billion monopolistic partnership with OpenAI as the Commission investigates the partnership on fair competition grounds.

The submission includes details on the ways in which Microsoft's investment in OpenAI gives the tech giant significant influence over the AI industry and the development of AI technologies.

The submission is in line with Open Markets’ November 2023 report, “AI in the Public Interest: Assessing the Monopoly Threat,” which also details the ways tech giants use partnerships with AI companies in order to lock in their dominance in the rapidly growing AI sector.

It also urges DG COMP to “look beyond carefully lawyered contractual terms and thoroughly investigate how its relationship with OpenAI functions in practice,” and suggests a set of 24 questions to use to assess the true extent of Microsoft’s control.

The groups made a similar submission to UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), urging regulators to fully investigate the partnership.

Read the Submission Here

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