Microsoft offers to change cloud licensing practices to avoid EU antitrust probe, says report
Microsoft has reportedly agreed to change its cloud computing practices in order to avoid an antitrust probe from the European Commission, the EU’s antitrust authority.
The potential probe relates to complaints made by European cloud companies including Aruba, OVHcloud, Danish Cloud Community and the Association of Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers (CISPE) about changes Microsoft first made to the terms of its outsourcing license agreement in 2019, and then modified again in 2022.
The cloud vendors raised concerns after their customers were asked to pay more to run Microsoft software in non-Microsoft cloud environments, under what they saw as restrictive cloud licensing policies.