EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said that Amazon and Microsoft have not raised cloud competition concerns in the European Union.
Last year, Amazon Web Services (AWS) accounted for 13 percent of Amazon’s revenue but 37 percent of its operating profit ($5.3 billion out of $14.3 billion). At the same time, Microsoft’s Q2’22 (ended 31st December) profit rose to a better-than-expected $18.8 billion, with overall cloud revenue climbing 32 percent and Azure cloud revenue up 46 percent.
These firms’ dominance in the European cloud market has caused concern among smaller competitors. French cloud computing company OVHcloud and German software provider NextCloud filed an antitrust case against Microsoft. They claim the tech giant has been stifling competition in the market and making it harder for consumers to choose services from rival firms.
The complaint focuses on Microsoft’s licensing operations, alleging that the company has made it more expensive for users to switch from Azure to a competing cloud provider.
It also says that Microsoft’s software performs poorly on non-Azure platforms, making it impossible for other cloud providers to compete.
Vestager said so far the antitrust watchdog had no concerns.
She said Gaia-X, a project to create efficient and secure cloud data and reduce the EU’s dependence on Silicon Valley giants, would help to increase competition in the European cloud market.
“This is not something that we are engaged in, but I basically see it as pro-competitive when you have someone to show potential customers that there are more than two giants where you can place your business.”
Vestager’s comments come at a time when tech giants including Google and Apple have criticised the EU’s newly-unveiled Digital Markets Act (DMA) for being stricter than originally anticipated.
