The European Commission is investigating Microsoft Azure for antitrust violations.

Microsoft has launched an – informal – investigation by the European Commission. The EU wants to check whether the American technology group is violating antitrust laws with its Azure Cloud Service.

First steps

The EU is now questioning customers of the service and some of Microsoft’s competitors about possible abuse of access to sensitive business information by cloud companies the giant works with. This information could then be used by Microsoft as a competitive advantage over other companies offering a similar cloud service.

Caused

This investigation follows complaints from CISPE (linked to market leader Amazon), OVH Cloud in France and the German Nextcloud, among others. Google also got involved in the debate in March with allegations of antitrust violations against Microsoft in cloud services. Through CEO Amit Zavery, Google called on the EU to investigate several deals between European cloud companies and Microsoft.

Microsoft’s response was not long in coming. It referenced a blog from last year in which it described itself as number two in the global cloud market. In the same breath, CEO Brad Smith also confirmed Microsoft’s commitment to the European cloud story.

However, Zavery pointed out that Microsoft’s lack of competitiveness extends beyond the cloud. He suggested that Microsoft should leverage the business dominance of Microsoft 365 and Windows to connect Azure and other cloud services under its wing. This would make it almost impossible for customers to choose another provider.

Possible developments

With this informal investigation, the EU wants to see non-confidential evidence by the end of this month. This could be a sign that a formal investigation is underway, leading to heavy fines.

Before that happens, however, there is always a chance that EU regulators could reach an agreement on the subject of their investigation, or even drop the case altogether if that is unfounded.