14 DAY TRIAL // China continues its anti-trust probe against Redmond-based software giant Microsoft with new raids at its local offices, in an attempt to collect more evidence of potential competition law violations.
A report by Reuters and citing officials of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) reveals that Chinese authorities have raided Microsoft offices in Beijing, Liaoning, Fujian and Hubei. Offices of IT consultancy firm Accenture, which works with Microsoft on financial reports, have also been raided by local officials.
Microsoft still refuses to comment on this new investigation, although it’s pretty clear that everything could be just a big abuse against US-based firms, but the company has once again expressed its intention to collaborate with investors to demonstrate that it’s complying with all local laws.
"We're serious about complying with China's laws and committed to addressing SAIC's questions and concerns," a Chinese Microsoft spokesperson has told the source.
Representatives of Accenture have also confirmed that Chinese authorities have raided their offices, but no specifics have been provided for the time being.
"We can confirm that, as required by Chinese laws, we are cooperating with investigators of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and are helping provide them with certain information related to one of our clients," Accenture Greater China has said in a statement.
Microsoft’s problems in China started in May, when the central government decided to ban Windows 8 on state computers. The company at that time said that it was working with officials to make Windows 8 available once again, but these negotiations never reached a conclusion and China decided soon after that to ban the OneDrive cloud-based storage service.
Even though this has never been officially confirmed, OneDrive users living in China explained that the service was experiencing massive disruptions for many days after the Windows 8 ban, and it’s yet to be determine whether everything is working fine in all regions or not.
What’s more, China has recently raided Microsoft’s offices amid claims of anti-trust violations, seizing a number of computers and documents that are supposed to help determine whether the Redmond-based company has violated any competition rules or not.
Microsoft Deputy General Counsel Mary Snapp traveled to China last week to discuss with SAIC officials over these allegations, but again, no conclusion was reached. Soon after that, China issued a warning for Microsoft, explaining that the American company would better stay away from its investigation and not obstruct the probe until a decision in this case was made.