It is widely known that, back in 2020, which also when the COVID-19 pandemic started to get serious, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) was offered a free license to Microsoft Teams.
Nobody really made much of it back then, as it was considered a gesture of good faith, which would ensure better communication for the NHS staff.
However, Microsoft is now facing some major problems, according to Daily Mail, as the UK government’s Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is investigating this situation.
The accusations are that Microsoft only used the free Teams license in order to gain an advantage over rivals.
The UK Government is investigating Microsoft for NHS gift
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the tech giant is already being investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority, over its plan to acquire Nuance.
This £12 billion voice recognition platform is also, coincidentally, widely used in the NHS, a fact that raises even more questions.
The available evidence could actually lead to Microsoft facing an anti-trust investigation, where it will come under scrutiny for possibly abusing its leading position.
Also, Redmond officials will have to provide hard answers to questions on whether Teams itself is suitable and secure enough for use by such a highly-important institution.
We remind you that, at this moment, Teams is estimated to be used by millions of NHS staff, which is saving the organization millions of pounds per year.
The UK probe comes on the heels of other difficulties for Microsoft, including an ongoing EU investigation spurred on by chat rival Slack.
We remind you that Slack accused the tech giant of gaining an unfair advantage due to it being bundled to users as part of the wider Office software suite.
It remains to be seen the exact consequences that Microsoft will have to face when all this is said and done. We’ll keep an eye out for any developments.
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