Microsoft Will Likely Avoid EU Antitrust Charges for Cloud Licensing

One week after it settled with CISPE, Microsoft has convinced OVHcloud to drop its EU antitrust complaint against it.  With this agreement, Microsoft most likely won’t face a formal EU antitrust charge because of its cloud licensing business practices.

“We are glad we reached this settlement and addressed OVH’s concerns,” a Microsoft statement notes.

Based in France, OVHcloud filed its antitrust complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission (EC) in March 2022, alleging that the software giant licensed its cloud-based services to make them much more expensive to use on rival cloud platforms. Among the issues, Microsoft charged so-called exit fees so customers wouldn’t shop around and find cheaper, local alternatives to Azure. Other EU cloud companies filed similar complaints, leading to the involvement of the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) trade group and a formal EC investigation.

Amazon and Google, which had similar policies, soon dropped their own exit fees, and each began publicly criticizing Microsoft for not doing so. But the software giant followed suit, and Google has since been working aggressively behind the scenes to prevent its rival from escaping punishment. But last week, Google reported a major setback: Microsoft and most of the companies in CISPE had reached a settlement. And now that OVHcloud, the last major holdout, has agreed to terms with Microsoft, it’s unlikely the EC will pursue charges.

Though the details are unclear, OVHcloud told Politico that Microsoft agreed to  “several changes in practices” that will enable customers to more easily switch to the cloud provider of their choice. As a result, it has withdrawn its antitrust complaint. But OVHcloud doesn’t seem all that impressed with Microsoft, despite the agreement.

“Although this agreement leads to concrete progress for the entire European cloud ecosystem, there is a crucial need for further action to effectively put an end to all anticompetitive practices implemented by hyperscalers in the EU cloud market,” an OVHcloud statement reads.