France’s Qwant accuses Microsoft of search result degradation

French search engine Qwant has filed a formal complaint with France’s antitrust regulator alleging that Microsoft deliberately degraded the quality of search results delivered through its Bing platform.

The privacy-focused search company is seeking interim action against the US tech giant while the regulator investigates the complaint, Reuters reported, citing sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Qwant, which relies on Microsoft’s Bing platform for its search services, wants the regulator to take interim action against the US tech giant while investigating its complaint.

The complaint represents the latest challenge to Microsoft’s search syndication business model, coming amid heightened scrutiny of Big Tech platforms across Europe. The timing appears critical for Qwant, as competition enforcers only take interim action if there is evidence that a company abuses its market power and has caused serious and immediate harm to the complainant.

Microsoft has dismissed the allegations outright, according to the report.

The French competition authority, known as the Autorité de la concurrence, is now gathering input from the broader industry. The regulator has sought feedback from other search engines and will likely decide by September whether to take interim action and also whether to open a formal investigation into Microsoft.

Autorité de la concurrence, Qwant, and Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment on the development.

The hidden power of search infrastructure

While Microsoft’s consumer search market share hovers around just 3-4% globally, its influence runs much deeper through the syndication model that powers alternative search engines across Europe.

“Microsoft’s role in B2B search syndication presents a critical but underregulated point of leverage,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst and CEO at Greyhound Research. “Through Bing APIs and Microsoft Advertising, it becomes the spine of monetisation and results delivery for privacy-focused rivals. This is not classical consumer market dominance — it’s infrastructural gatekeeping.”

The complaint highlights how smaller European search engines typically rely on their bigger rivals’ back-end technology to deliver search and news results, creating dependencies that can be exploited.

The technical nature of the allegations makes proving wrongdoing particularly challenging. “Microsoft can modulate the quality of search results it delivers to syndication partners via Bing APIs — through result latency, index scope, or algorithmic relevance. But proving such selective degradation is a regulatory minefield,” Gogia noted.

A pattern of regulatory trouble

This isn’t Microsoft’s first encounter with European regulators. Just last month, the company offered to make its Office product without Teams cheaper than when sold with Teams, attempting to resolve a long-running EU antitrust case that could have resulted in massive fines. The Teams investigation, triggered by a 2020 complaint by Slack, has been a persistent challenge for Microsoft.

Microsoft, which has accrued $2.3 billion in EU antitrust fines in the past years, then said it would align the options and pricing for its suites and Teams service globally if the EU regulator accepts its offer. But the challenges aren’t limited to Europe. In November, the FTC opened a broad antitrust investigation into Microsoft, including its software licensing and cloud computing businesses.

Microsoft isn’t alone in facing intensified antitrust scrutiny. Google, too, has faced similar allegations about browser dominance and market manipulation, both in the EU and the US.

The Department of Justice is calling for Google to divest its Chrome browser, following a ruling in August calling the company a monopolist in the search market. In April, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia held that Google violated antitrust law by monopolizing open-web digital advertising markets.

Europe’s digital sovereignty push

The case reflects broader European efforts to reduce dependence on US tech platforms. “As the world becomes more geopolitically fragmented and technology increasingly seems like it can be used for leverage, it’s reasonable to see many countries looking to develop independent stacks — be it in search or in other technology areas,” said Abhishek Sengupta, practice director at Everest Group.

“For example, Germany wants to focus on creating native applications to ensure they are not overly dependent on US big tech,” Sengupta added, highlighting the growing trend toward digital sovereignty across Europe.

Qwant’s efforts to build independence are already underway. In November 2024, the company announced a partnership with Ecosia to build the European Search Index, designed to provide more localized search results in French and German while reducing reliance on Bing and Google. However, this initiative is still in early stages.

“The Qwant–Ecosia index is less about competitive parity and more about narrative control,” Gogia observed. “Until the index is robust enough to fully replace Bing and Google results—both technically and commercially—the initiative functions as a complement rather than a replacement.”

High stakes and uncertain outcomes

For Qwant and other European search engines, this case could determine their long-term survival. Companies risk fines of as much as 10% of their global annual turnover for breaching French antitrust rules, creating significant pressure for compliance. For Microsoft, that could translate to billions in potential penalties.

However, the complex technical nature of the allegations presents unique challenges for regulators. “The evidentiary bar remains high,” Gogia noted. “Unlike pricing abuse, degradation of service in digital syndication manifests in subtler ways—reduced index depth, slower query responses, or unexplainable result variance. These are difficult to benchmark externally, and even harder to attribute with certainty.”

The September decision deadline will be closely watched by other European search engines, regulators, and Microsoft’s competitors. If France’s antitrust authority decides to take interim action, it could provide immediate relief to Qwant while setting a precedent for how search syndication disputes are handled across Europe.