01:23 PM EDT, 07/19/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Microsoft ( MSFT ) drew criticism from the US Federal Trade Commission for the worldwide price increases for the company's Xbox Game Pass subscription service and its offer of a "degraded" product.

In a Thursday filing with the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the FTC said such post-merger actions by Microsoft ( MSFT ) "vindicate the congressional design of preliminarily halting mergers to fully evaluate their likely competitive effects, and judicial skepticism of promises inconsistent with a firm's economic incentives."

Microsoft's ( MSFT ) price changes for Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and 12-month subscriptions to Game Pass Core took effect July 10. It is also introducing Game Pass Standard, which the FTC described as a degraded product that "(removes) the most valuable games from Microsoft's ( MSFT ) new service."

"Microsoft's ( MSFT ) price increases and product degradation - combined with Microsoft's ( MSFT ) reduced investments in output and product quality via employee layoffs...are the hallmarks of a firm exercising market power post-merger," the FTC filing said.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) did not immediately reply to MT Newswires' request for comment.

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