London – The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) today announced that it would not prioritise a Strategic Market Status (SMS) investigation into cloud services, rejecting a recommendation from an earlier Market Investigation. Instead, the regulator announced commitments from Microsoft and Amazon to “improve cloud interoperability and reduce egress fees“. It also announced an SMS investigation will go ahead into Microsoft’s “business software ecosystem,” which the regulator argued would allow it to “examine cloud licensing.”
The following can be attributed to CCIA Senior Director and head of CCIA’s London office, Matthew Sinclair:
“It is very welcome news that the CMA will avoid overly broad and prescriptive interventions that would have impeded investment and innovation in UK cloud services. The regulator can focus its efforts on action to address specific issues, particularly restrictive software licensing terms for legacy software, which are costing UK users a fortune.”
