French cloud company OVH and two European industry peers have filed a complaint with the European Commission against Microsoft.
The European companies accuse the American tech group of ‘undermining fair competition’. Microsoft would also limit the choice of consumers. The complaint, which the European Commission has acknowledged, was already submitted last summer. The European competition watchdog says it will assess the case. If the committee sees reason to do so, it can start an investigation.
OHV is complaining to the committee about Microsoft’s licensing of products such as its Office office software. This makes it more expensive for companies to use cloud services other than Microsoft’s Azure service, the company told business newspaper The Wall Street Journal. Microsoft products also work less well if companies have a different cloud provider than the tech group.
Microsoft says in response, “it is continuously working on how it can best support partners and make Microsoft software available.” The company also looks at support for customers who use other cloud service providers.
