The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is preparing to launch an investigation into anti-competitive practices at Microsoft's cloud computing business, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter.

The regulators are examining allegations that the software giant is potentially abusing its market power in productivity software by imposing punitive licensing terms to prevent customers from moving their data from its Azure cloud service to other competitive platforms, the report said.

Tactics being examined include substantially increasing subscription fees for those that leave, charging steep exit fees and allegedly making its Office 365 products incompatible with rival clouds, according to the report.

FTC declined to comment while Microsoft did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.