Microsoft has reportedly proposed changes to its cloud computing strategy to address antitrust complaints from smaller rivals, a move aimed at avoiding an EU antitrust investigation, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, local time.
The move comes after French cloud computing provider OVHcloud, Italian cloud provider Aruba and the Danish Association of Cloud Service Providers filed complaints with the European Commission about Microsoft’s cloud operations and licensing agreements.
The person familiar with the matter said Microsoft has made a specific proposal based on what Microsoft President Brad Smith announced last year.
The person familiar with the matter said the European Commission, which is the competition enforcement agency for the 27 EU member states, has fined Microsoft a total of more than 1.6 billion euros (currently about 11.92 billion yuan) over the past 10 years. The European Commission will also oversee the final resolution of the complaint.
Microsoft said it changed its licensing practices in October of last year based on feedback from European cloud providers.
Both the EU antitrust regulator and OVHcloud declined to comment, and Aruba and the Danish Cloud Service Providers Association have not yet responded.
Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe (CISPE) is a trade group whose members include cloud computing market leader Amazon.com Inc. The organization said Microsoft’s approach was not the way to resolve the complaint.
A spokeswoman for the organization said: “We have had initial discussions with Microsoft but have not seen any changes to ensure that all European customers have the opportunity to run the software they want in the cloud of their choice and are protected from unfair licensing terms or discriminatory pricing. So, complaints will continue.”
Last week it was reported that competitors wanted Microsoft to do more to address their complaints after the initial offer fell short of requirements. That put enormous pressure on Microsoft to improve the company’s offer, the person familiar with the matter said.
