The European Commission has fined Microsoft
a total EUR 1.6 billion in the previous decade for breaching EU antitrust rules
and for not complying with its order to halt anti-competitive practices.
The company found itself on the EU
competition enforcer's radar again after German software provider NextCloud,
France's OVHcloud and two other companies filed complaints about Microsoft's
cloud practices.
"The Commission has information that
Microsoft may be using its potentially dominant position in certain software
markets to foreclose competition regarding certain cloud computing
services," the questionnaire said.
Regulators asked if the terms in
Microsoft's licensing deals with cloud service providers allow rivals to
compete effectively.
They also want to know if companies needed
Microsoft's operating systems and productivity applications to complement their
own cloud infrastructure offering in order to compete effectively.
Companies also were asked about the
differences in license fees and commercial terms between the licensing deals
with cloud service providers and another programme in which they package and
indirectly resell Microsoft's cloud services together with their own.
Another focus was potential technical
limitations on cloud storage services available on companies' cloud
infrastructure.
"We're continuously evaluating how we
can best support partners and make Microsoft software available to customers across
all environments, including those of other cloud providers," Microsoft
said in an emailed statement.
EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager
earlier this week said she has no concerns yet about cloud computing and cited
the competition from Europe's Gaia-X initiative. © Reuters
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