The European Commission is paying increasing attention to Microsoft’s cloud business and to its dominant position in this market. According to Reutersa questionnaire was sent to other cloud players to determine whether the practices of the American giant can indeed be considered anti-competitive.
Microsoft’s cloud business could come under scrutiny
This announcement echoes the study revealed by Google a few days ago. The Mountain View firm, through the voice of Jeanette Manfra, director of compliance at Google, affirms that the relationship between the US government and Microsoft can constitute “a permanent threat to the security of the country”. Google points to Microsoft’s dominant position in the cloud market and confirms the fears of the European Commission. Indeed, Microsoft could be subject to further investigation from the European Commission.
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Brussels commissioners reportedly sent a questionnaire to cloud players to determine whether Microsoft’s position actually raises anticompetitive concerns. In this questionnaire, it is specified that “the Commission has information that Microsoft could use its potentially dominant position in certain software markets to prevent competition in certain cloud computing services”. The sending of this questionnaire is a traditional step before further examination by the Commission.
Margrethe Vestager bets big on Gaia-X
This is not the first time that Microsoft’s practices have been targeted by competition authorities. A few months ago, some thirty companies and associations formed the “Coalition for a Level Playing Field”an alliance that accuses Microsoft of pre-installing several tools on Windows, including OneDrive and Teams. Indeed, by acquiring a computer whose operating system is Windows 10 or Windows 11, the file storage service and the Microsoft collaborative tool are already installed. This is precisely what these European players deplore.
However, Margrethe Vestager, European Commissioner for Competition, does not seem worried. She said that “the cloud market was not currently raising antitrust concerns”. According to her, Gaia-X constitutes a credible and sufficient to face the American and Chinese giants. Several European companies, including Jamespot, Euclidia, Clever Cloud, Scaleway, have yet sent an open letter to Margrethe Vestager calling on her to strengthen her legislation in the cloud computing sector.