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Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, spoke with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during a tour of Microsoft's main campus in Redmond, Wash., in September.PHOTO:REUTERS
(Wall Street Journal) Chinese officials have askedMicrosoftCorp.to explain “major problems” in digital data the U.S. software company had provided as part of a continuing probe into its sales and marketing practices in the country.
In a statement dated Tuesday, China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce said it asked Microsoft to explain elements of the information the agency had received as part of an antitrust investigation it began more than a year ago. The SAIC said it requested that the company “explain some major problems with the digital data.”
The agency didn’t provide additional information.
A spokeswoman for Microsoft said she didn’t have an immediate comment. The Redmond, Wash., company has previously said it would cooperate.
The disclosure marks the agency’s first mention of the probe in more than a year. The purpose of the investigation isn’t clear, though previously an SAIC official has said authorities were looking athow Microsoft distributesits media player and browser software in China.
The probe, whendisclosed in 2014, came amid growing concern among foreign companies and business groups that Chinese officials were using the country’s relatively new antimonopoly law against them. The law, enacted in 2008, is overseen by the SAIC and two other agencies and has been the basis for increasingly aggressive regulation by Chinese officials.
Examples of its enforcement during the past two years include a nearly $1 billion fine imposed onQualcommInc.,as well as other fines levied on companies includingeye-care providersandmilk-product makers.
Chinese officials have said they would protect the rights of foreign companies doing business in the country. At the same time, they have cited a growing consumer class sensitive to price differences and a rising regulatory sophistication as reasons for the increased enforcement.
Business groups say China will only grow in importance in global pricing and antitrust issues. “It should be expected that China, with its large economy, will develop into the third leg of the global antitrust regime, along with the United States and the European Union,” saida reportreleased by the U.S.-China Business Council, a trade group of U.S. businesses.
