Since January 2022, the terms Microsoft, Activision Blizzard or even antitrust have made us think directly of the famous takeover that has caused so much ink to flow in the video game universe for 14 months. However, the Microsoft group does not touch only the world of video games as you know, and it is precisely in another case that Microsoft must manage an antitrust complaint filed by the European Commission.
Unfair competition in the cloud sector
On March 17, Reuters told us that the French of OVHcloud (OVH.PA), the Italians of Aruba SpA and the Danes of Cloud Community had filed a joint antitrust complaint with the European Union’s competition policeman a few months ago. The three companies denounce Microsoft’s contractual and commercial practices that leave consumers with little choice. The French from OVHcloud declared in particular this:
“By abusing its dominant position, Microsoft is undermining fair competition and limiting consumer choice in the market for cloud computing services. »
Today, we learn that Microsoft would be in the process of reaching an agreement with the trio of European cloud providers who filed this complaint. The deal would relate to a change in Microsoft’s cloud practices. The European Commission’s antitrust body will monitor the deal, a source close to Reuters said. A Microsoft spokesperson said:
“We’re grateful for the productive conversations that got us here and appreciate the feedback we’ve received since. »
For their part, OVHcloud, Aruba and the Danish Cloud Community did not comment on the case. The Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) trade group, which notably includes cloud market leader Amazon.com Inc, has already announced that it is not part of the agreement:
“We’ve had an initial discussion with Microsoft, but haven’t seen anything to suggest any changes that will ensure that all European customers have the ability to run the software they want in the cloud of their choice without licensing requirements. unfair or discriminatory prices.
That is why we will continue to file our complaint.”
It’s hard to know what the outcome of this case will be, but it seems that everything now lies in the hands of Microsoft. Given the current context and the state of the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft has every interest in playing the game of the European Commission and not sparking.
