Microsoft Urges FTC Inspector General to Investigate Alleged Leaks to Media

Microsoft is experiencing technical difficulties with some of its services. This April 12, 2016 file photo shows the Microsoft logo in Issy-les-Moulineaux, outside Paris, France. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Michel Euler

Microsoft formally requested that the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Inspector General investigate potential leaks of confidential information from within the agency to media outlets.

In a letter dated Dec. 3, Microsoft expressed concern over a recent Bloomberg News report detailing a purported antitrust investigation into the company.

“On November 27, 2024, Bloomberg News reported that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had ‘opened an antitrust investigation’ of Microsoft,” wrote Rima Alaily, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel.

“This type of information, as well as references in the story to ‘people familiar with the information request,’ strongly suggests that the details included in Bloomberg’s story come from within the FTC.”

Microsoft said that it learned of the supposed investigation through the media report and has yet to receive any formal legal process, from the FTC.

The FTC told The Epoch Times in an email that it has no comment on the matter.

Alaily noted that when Microsoft inquired about the validity of the Bloomberg story, FTC staff would not confirm the existence of the information request.

The Bloomberg report described an allegedly extensive information demand issued to Microsoft, “which is hundreds of pages long,” and indicated that FTC Chair Lina Khan had signed off on it.

The report suggested that the FTC’s antitrust lawyers are set to meet with Microsoft’s competitors to gather more information about the company’s business practices.

This incident, according to Microsoft, is part of a “trend over the last two years of the FTC strategically leaking nonpublic information.”

The letter noted that “FTC law enforcement investigations are nonpublic.”

Alaily referenced a report by FTC Inspector General Andrew Katsaros, which observed that unauthorized disclosures of nonpublic information (NPI) have been “steadily increasing” during Khan’s tenure.

“The trust of businesses, consumers, and other affected parties that the FTC will not improperly disclose NPI is vital to the FTC’s ability to execute on its law enforcement mission,“ Katsaros wrote in the Sept. 30 report. ”The mere perception that the FTC is leaking such information erodes that trust.”

Alaily quoted from that report and urged a full investigation into the leak and requested that the findings be made public promptly.

In October, Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), and colleagues sent a letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz and FTC’s Katsaros, demanding an investigation into “systematic media leaks” that resulted in negative headlines about antitrust targets.

“These leaks result in negative headlines about the administration’s targets while the targeted companies have no way to respond, as they haven’t yet seen the potential lawsuits,” the senators wrote. “Both DOJ and FTC have ethics rules that prohibit leaking civil cases before the cases are filed.”

The FTC’s Office of Inspector General has not indicated whether it will pursue an investigation in response to Microsoft’s request and did not respond to a request from The Epoch Times.