The CISPE trade group filed its grievance with European Union antitrust regulators. That said, Microsoft is once again the victim of an antitrust complaint over its cloud computing practices.
CISPE attacks Microsoft for its cloud computing practices
Updated statements from CISPE miserably affect the giant Microsoft. In fact, according to the group, the news contractual conditions and other company practices irreparably harm the European cloud computing ecosystem. Francisco Mingorance, Secretary General of CISPE, said: “By leveraging its dominance in productivity software, Microsoft is restricting choice and inflating costs as European customers seek to move to the cloud, distorting Europe’s digital economy.” Namely that after Amazon, Microsoft occupies a considerable market share of cloud computing, followed by Google Alphabet.
CISPE goes on to strongly point the finger at Microsoft. According to its complaint to the European Commission in particular, the group states that Microsoft is using its dominance in productivity software. And this, to lead EU customers in its Azure cloud infrastructure by trampling its rivals in the country. The allegations were clear: preferential pricing, technical and competitive customer lock-in. And that’s not all, CISPE also accuses Microsoft of discriminatory bundling and tied selling of its products in its anti-competitive practices.
Thunder strikes a second time on the same tree
The previous decade, if you think back, Microsoft was fined more than €1.6 billion by the Commission. At the time, he was alleged for various violations of antitrust laws. So Microsoft said it would commit to resolving the issues of valid licenses and support a competitive environment. “The licensing changes we introduced in October give customers and cloud providers around the world even more options to run and deliver our software in the cloud,” according to a company spokesperson.
Subsequently, Microsoft changed licensing agreements and made other changes to make it easier for cloud service providers to compete. The goal is in fact, to avoid EU antitrust concerns. However, Amazon, Google Alphabet, Alibaba as well as Microsoft’s own cloud services are excluded from these changes.
Measures for Microsoft?
According to CISPE, the EU competition watchdog should take charge of this problem of Microsoft on its cloud computing practices. For this, the group proposed an application of the principles software licensing fair. Similarly, he said that consideration could be given to setting up a european observatory independent. This will be responsible for auditing the license conditions of the main software publishers.
On the other hand, another provision must also be applied for cloud computing controllers, according to CISPE. This is done, to complement the newly adopted rules known as the “Digital Markets Act.”