Microsoft Is Paying Brazilian Users In Skype Credit To Switch to Bing

New submitter perplexing.reader (2241844) writes "Microsoft is paying Brazilian users US$2 in Skype vouchers to set Bing as their default search engine and MSN as their default home page. Translated from the site: 'Make MSN your homepage and Bing your default search engine and earn up to 60 minutes of calls to mobiles and landlines in Skype.' ... The Rules: 'After receiving the voucher, this should be used until July 31, 2014. Once on Skype, the credits do not expire. The minutes are based on a rate of $ 0.023 per minute, but the number of minutes may vary depending on the destination of the call and the number of calls you make. The current value of the voucher is $2.00. [One claimed], the voucher will appear in your Skype account." (For those outside Brazil, the page brings up a message that translates to "Sorry, this promotion is not available for your country.")

Not just Brazil

[wjcofkc]

For quite awhile now, Microsoft has had programs that pay people to use Bing. This even true in the United States. It's a rather sad and pathetic move. Kind of like saying, "Our search in engine is so substandard compared to the competition we have to pay people to use it." Past all that, can anyone tell me if this practice is in any way anti-competitive or legally questionable? Or is it like swiping a CVS card.