Thursday, July 11th 2024
Microsoft's €20m European Cloud Providers Settlement Draws Mixed Reactions
Microsoft has agreed to pay €20 million to settle an antitrust complaint filed by Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE), a European cloud providers association. The deal aims to address concerns about Microsoft's cloud product licensing practices, also, Microsoft will develop Azure Stack HCI for European cloud providers and compensate CISPE members for recent licensing costs. On the other side, CISPE will withdraw its EU complaint, cease supporting similar global complaints, and establish an independent European Cloud Observatory to monitor the product's development.
The settlement excludes major providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and AliCloud. While CISPE hails this as a victory, critics argue it's insufficient. AWS spokesperson Alia Ilyas said that Microsoft was only making "limited concessions for some CISPE members that demonstrate there are no technical barriers preventing it from doing what's right for every cloud customer". Google Cloud suggests more action is needed against anti-competitive behavior, and UK-based cloud company Civo's CEO Mark Boost questions the deal's long-term impact on the industry. Boost stated, "However they position it, we cannot shy away from what this deal appears to be: a global powerful company paying for the silence of a trade body, and avoiding having to make fundamental changes to their software licensing practices on a global basis". Despite resolving the CISPE complaint, Microsoft faces ongoing regulatory scrutiny worldwide. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority launched a cloud computing market investigation in October 2023 while the US Federal Trade Commission is conducting two separate probes involving Microsoft. The first FTC investigation, initiated in January 2024, examines AI services and partnerships of major tech companies, including Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Anthropic, and OpenAI. The second focuses specifically on Microsoft, OpenAI, and Nvidia, assessing their impact and behavior in the AI sector.
Sources:
DCD, CISPE
The settlement excludes major providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and AliCloud. While CISPE hails this as a victory, critics argue it's insufficient. AWS spokesperson Alia Ilyas said that Microsoft was only making "limited concessions for some CISPE members that demonstrate there are no technical barriers preventing it from doing what's right for every cloud customer". Google Cloud suggests more action is needed against anti-competitive behavior, and UK-based cloud company Civo's CEO Mark Boost questions the deal's long-term impact on the industry. Boost stated, "However they position it, we cannot shy away from what this deal appears to be: a global powerful company paying for the silence of a trade body, and avoiding having to make fundamental changes to their software licensing practices on a global basis". Despite resolving the CISPE complaint, Microsoft faces ongoing regulatory scrutiny worldwide. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority launched a cloud computing market investigation in October 2023 while the US Federal Trade Commission is conducting two separate probes involving Microsoft. The first FTC investigation, initiated in January 2024, examines AI services and partnerships of major tech companies, including Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Anthropic, and OpenAI. The second focuses specifically on Microsoft, OpenAI, and Nvidia, assessing their impact and behavior in the AI sector.
9 Comments on Microsoft's €20m European Cloud Providers Settlement Draws Mixed Reactions
On slightly lighter side of things:
At the individual scale you have billionaires just considering fines as a trivial "cost to do that" such as parking your Ferarri for €2500, building this mansion without any of the relevant permissions for an extra €1m, not paying tax on particular earnings etc as a minor <1% inconvenience.
At the corporation end you have the megacorps just doing what they want. €20m is nothing to Microsoft. Averaged over the last year, Microsoft makes about €1m per minute in profit. That's profit, not revenue - so this entire debacle cost Microsoft less than the downtime caused by, for example, a single 30-minute company-wide announcement by Satya to his employees explaining how they got away with doing what they want with zero repercussions yet again.
If the fines/settlements were 1000x greater, I'm still not sure it would be enough to discourage the big 8 tech companies from lawless exploitation (Alphabet, Amazon, AMD, Apple, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia)
It's money offered by Microsoft to CISPE in exchange for withdrawing charges, never accusing them of anything again and shutting the f up. A bribe, if you will.
Love Google’s comment about being against monopolistic behaviour - Absolutely, when it’s not them being targeted.