Microsoft, which has been under scrutiny in Europe recently for its seemingly unfair dominance of the cloud market, has responded to similar complaints from the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
The company insists its terms “do not significantly increase costs for cloud rivals”, adding that Amazon remains the market-leading hyperscaler in the UK and that the CMA should instead focus its efforts on Microsoft’s rival.
Microsoft also highlighted Google's strong quarterly growth and Windows Server's decline relative to Linux in terms of cloud operating system share.
Microsoft tells CMA to look anywhere but at it
In its 100-point response to the CMA's investigation, Microsoft concluded that no action should be taken against the company, but in the event the CMA goes ahead, Microsoft is calling for exit fees not to be scrapped, adding that companies should be able to recover the costs involved in exiting a contract.
The CMA's main concern is how much Microsoft charges customers to use its software on rival clouds compared with its own Aure service. Most customers said that using Microsoft products on Azure was cheaper than using services from major competitors.
Amazon and Google believe that customers should be able to use their cloud licenses freely, while Microsoft sees it as a positive thing to offer users access to its tools even if they don't use its cloud.
While Microsoft and rival cloud companies have responded to initial queries, it could take until late 2024 before a provisional decision is reached, at which point the parties involved will have another opportunity to share their views.
Approximately 18 months after Ofcom's initial referral of 5 October 2023, the CMA will publish its final decision in line with the statutory deadline of 4 April 2025.
