当前，英国反垄断机构正在对云计算服务市场展开调查，重点对象就是亚马逊的AWS和微软的Azure云服务，因为这两家公司在云计算市场上的主导地位在不断加强。虽然谷歌云也是全球云计算市场的重要参与者，但其份额仍落后于AWS和Azure。
According to reports, Microsoft is facing an antitrust lawsuit of more than 1 billion US dollars in the UK today, accusing Microsoft of retaliating against thousands of British companies using Amazon and Google cloud computing services and demanding that they pay higher license fees to use Windows Server software.
Antitrust lawyer Maria Luisa Stasi filed a lawsuit with the UK Competition Appeals Tribunal (Competition Appeal Tribunal) on Tuesday to seek compensation of more than 1 billion pounds (about 1.27 billion US dollars) for affected British companies and organizations.
Stasi said in the lawsuit: “Simply put, Microsoft is punishing British businesses and organizations that use Google and Amazon cloud services, forcing them to pay more for Windows Server. With this approach, Microsoft is trying to limit competition in the industry by forcing customers to use Azure, its cloud computing service.”
Currently, the British antitrust agency is investigating the cloud computing service market. The focus targets are Amazon's AWS and Microsoft's Azure cloud services, as these two companies continue to strengthen their dominant position in the cloud computing market. Although Google Cloud is also an important player in the global cloud computing market, its share still lags behind AWS and Azure.
In 2020, Microsoft introduced new licensing fees to run its software on major cloud service providers. Today's lawsuit alleges that Microsoft used its new licensing policy to entice customers to use its Azure services.
According to data released by the UK antitrust regulator “Competition and Markets Authority” (CMA) in May this year, Microsoft has won customers “much faster than other cloud service providers” since the license change.
People familiar with the matter revealed that in addition to the British CMA, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched an extensive antitrust investigation against Microsoft last week, including its cloud computing business.
There have been previous complaints that Microsoft is using its dominant position in office software to prevent customers from moving from Azure to competitor platforms by enforcing punitive licensing terms. The FTC is currently investigating this.
