Microsoft’s Cloud Sparks Complaint to EU by Amazon-Linked Group

A collection of Microsoft Corp.’s rivals including OVH and Amazon.com Inc.’s AWS fired off an antitrust complaint.

CISPE, a European cloud-company policy group, said it’s calling for a probe into Microsoft’s business model before some companies are shut out of the market, causing “material harm to customers.” (REUTERS)

A collection of Microsoft Corp.'s rivals including OVH and Amazon.com Inc.'s AWS fired off an antitrust complaint to European Union watchdogs alleging the software giant uses unfair licensing practices to lure customers in the region to its cloud infrastructure.

CISPE, a European cloud-company policy group, said it's calling for a probe into Microsoft's business model before some companies are shut out of the market, causing “material harm to customers.” It's the fourth current complaint targeting Microsoft at the Brussels-based European Commission.

Bowing to months of pressure from rival cloud providers, Microsoft earlier this year announced changes to its software licensing terms to make it easier for customers of rival cloud-service companies in Europe to move their existing software to these other networks. The changes took effect on Oct. 1.

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But CISPE called the changes a “smokescreen” that fail “to tackle the harms to consumers and providers” that have already been outlined in a previous complaint to the EU.

Microsoft, whose $69 billion takeover bid for Activision Blizzard Inc. was earmarked on Tuesday for an in-depth EU review, said in a statement the licensing changes it had recently introduced “give customers and cloud providers around the world even more options for running and offering our software in the cloud.” 

It said it was “committed to addressing valid licensing concerns and support a competitive environment where all providers can thrive.”