EU Antitrust Regulators Quiz Microsoft’s Rivals on Request for Buyer Knowledge

EU antitrust regulators are asking Microsoft’s rivals what sort of buyer information they’re required to offer to the US tech big as a part of their Azure cloud contracts, six months after a commerce group complained about its cloud computing practices.

Cloud Infrastructure Companies Suppliers in Europe (CISPE), whose members embrace Amazon, alleged final November that Microsoft’s new contractual phrases imposed on October 1 along with different practices had been harming the European cloud computing ecosystem.

In a questionnaire despatched to cloud suppliers seen by Reuters, the European Fee requested recipients for a listing of contractual clauses requiring these corporations to report details about their European prospects to Microsoft.

“The Fee has acquired a number of complaints relating to Microsoft, together with in relation to its product Azure, which we’re assessing based mostly on our normal procedures,” a spokesperson for the EU government mentioned.

The EU competitors enforcer wished to know concerning the frequency of the reporting, the interval for which the information is requested, the format of the reporting, and whether or not the data is shipped on to Microsoft or to an auditor.

Recipients, who got till this week to reply, had been requested whether or not there have been contractual, precise, or threatened penalties for not complying with these clauses.

The EU watchdog requested if Microsoft might have used the data to go on to the recipients’ prospects.

Microsoft, hit by greater than 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion or roughly Rs. 147.17 crore) in EU fines within the earlier decade for varied antitrust violations, declined to remark.

It has made a proposal to CISPE in a bid to settle the difficulty and talks are ongoing, in accordance with an individual acquainted with the matter. 

© Thomson Reuters 2023