OVHcloud filed the complaint with the European Commission last summer, reveals the wall street journal. The complaint relates to how Microsoft licenses its products, such as its Office suite.
Pricing practices that can make it more expensive to use cloud services that compete with Microsoft’s Azure cloud.
Furthermore, the complaint states that Microsoft’s software does not work as well on other cloud services as it does on Azure. What makes the competition even more difficult.
AWS, Azure and Google Cloud represent 69% of the European cloud market
“By abusing its dominant position, Microsoft undermines fair competition and limits consumer choice in the cloud computing services market,” denounces a spokesperson for OVHcloud. Other cloud computing companies have filed a complaint, according to OVHcloud, which remains discreet on the subject.
OVHcloud, which went public in Paris last year, has to face, like its European colleagues, fierce competition from American cloud computing service providers such as AWS, Azure and Google Cloud.
These three companies now represent 69% of the European cloud computing market, according to the Synergy Research Group. Deutsche Telekom is Europe’s largest cloud service provider, with just 2% of the continent’s market, followed by OVHcloud, with 1%, according to Synergy.
Avalanche of complaints in an Azure sky
Microsoft defends itself by explaining that its products bring value to cloud computing players operating in a growing market. “Cloud providers have many options for delivering cloud services to their customers using Microsoft software, whether customer- or partner-purchased,” the company said in a statement.
Two other recent complaints have been filed in Europe regarding Microsoft’s cloud products. In 2020, Slack, a business messaging app, filed a complaint with the European Union over the provisioning of Microsoft Teams with Office.
Last year, the German company Nextcloud, which specializes in cloud storage, filed a complaint (along with 30 other players) with the European Union about Microsoft’s bundling of its OneDrive storage product with its Windows operating system.
These cases recall the adventures of Microsoft in the 90s, with its Windows operating system. At the time, the company was accused of using its OS to push new services and products, including its Internet Explorer web browser, to the detriment of fair and equitable competition.
Today, Thursday, March 17, 2022, Microsoft Chairman Brad Smith is due to meet Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s head of digital policy and antitrust. The European Commission has indicated that the meeting will take place online and will focus on “issues relating to the digital wallet”.