Microsoft faces next EU competition investigation

Microsoft’s legal department simply doesn’t come to rest. As soon as there are first solutions in the dispute over the takeover of the games group Activision Blizzard, you have to deal with new allegations from the European competition regulator.

The Brussels authority wants to investigate the suspicion that Microsoft is abusing its access to business-critical information that uses its cloud service to gain an advantage over competitors in other areas. The US news agency reported that competitors and customers should be asked about this Bloomberg citing two sources familiar with the matter.

The resulting escalation by the EU follows a series of complaints from cloud companies about Microsoft’s behavior. CISPE, an industry association that also includes Microsoft’s main competitor Amazon, complained about Microsoft. Respondents have had until today to reply to the Commission’s questions. They have also been asked to submit non-confidential versions of possible evidence by the end of the month – often a sign that a formal antitrust investigation is underway.

Various complaints

“The Commission has received several complaints about Microsoft, including in relation to the product Azure, which we are investigating based on our standard procedures,” the EU authority said in a statement. Earlier complaints came from French hoster OVH, Italian company Aruba, a Danish cloud association and Nextcloud, a German cloud provider, among others.

The matter runs completely independently of the examinations regarding the planned Activision takeover by various competition authorities. However, it is of course not conducive to such a concern if the Microsoft lawyers want to make it clear on the one hand that the company does not pose a threat to free competition, but then there are corresponding antitrust allegations in other areas.

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