MICROSOFT LICENSING PRACTICES COULD HARM COMPETITION, SAYS UK COMPETITION REGULATOR
On 28 January 2025, the Competition and Markets Authority’s, the UK’s competition regulator, published its provisional findings into the cloud services market. Their findings raised particular concerns about Microsoft’s licensing practices.
The CMA’s findings overlap very closely with our legal action to secure compensation for businesses and organisations in the UK that have been overcharged for Microsoft products. In particular, the CMA found that:
- “Microsoft products are important inputs to cloud services, such that Microsoft has the potential to harm its rivals in cloud services when customers purchase cloud services that incorporate these products.”
- [there are] “Differences relating to price and/or quality factors when customers use these software products on Microsoft’s cloud compared to its main rivals, AWS and Google: in fact, the price that Microsoft charges these rivals
for some of these products can be higher than the retail price it charges its own customers.
- “Microsoft has the ability and incentive to partially foreclose AWS and Google using the relevant Microsoft software products and that its conduct is harming competition in cloud services.”
A summary of its provisional findings and its provisional decision report are available on its website. See Paragraphs 20 – 25 for more information.
Dr Maria Luisa Stasi, class representative in the £2 billion case against Microsoft, commented:
“The CMA has rightly called Microsoft out for its anti-competitive practices. Microsoft’s software licensing prices were found to be higher for organisations using its rivals like AWS and Google, with the CMA adding that Microsoft has the ‘ability and incentive’ to foreclose its cloud rivals and harm competition.
For many businesses and organisations, the damage has already been done. Microsoft has already overcharged them for software licensing, and has done so for years. My case against Microsoft hopes to put that money – potentially billions of pounds – back into the pockets of businesses and organisations across the UK.”
James Hain-Cole, lead counsel at Scott+Scott UK representing Dr. Stasi, added
“Public and private enforcement are two crucial, overlapping routes to not only prevent anti-competitive behaviour, but retrospectively seek redress. We are proud to continue to support Dr. Stasi in her efforts to seek compensation for businesses that have fallen foul of Microsoft’s harmful licensing practices – the importance of which has been underlined by the CMA today.”