EU monopoly cops probe complaints about Microsoft Azure

EU antitrust wagons are circling Microsoft's Azure just as a probe by the Federal Trade Commission takes shape, with software vendors' heavy-handed licensing practices in the cloud drawing fire stateside. Microsoft is already facing complaints on multiple fronts: Slack took exception to it bundling Teams with Office 365; …

[Snake]

"Microsoft is already facing complaints on multiple fronts: Slack took exception to it bundling Teams with Office 365"

You are free to NOT buy or use Office 365, and the fact that it includes a 'bonus' teleconference app, that has PLENTY of competitors, does not force you into buying into Office 365. You have a choice as Office 365 is *not* bundled with Windows, you must both choose to install *and* [pay] subscribe to it in order to get the (added) Teams functionality.

No case.

"Nextcloud filed papers with the EU over Microsoft bundling OneDrive with Windows"

This is stickier. You still have the option of not using OneDrive but legal precedent shows that law makers consider that a form of 'lock-in collusion' by pressuring users to stick within the granted ecosystem (strange how Apple gets more leeway in that field...).

Nextcloud may have a case here so I am not going to volunteer a judgement outcome.

[Anonymous Coward]

Classic MS anti-competitive begaviour

The point is that MS is abusing its dominance in the office suite market to bundle additional products that lockout rivals. This is what competition laws are there to protect against. It doesn't matter that you don't 'have' to buy Office 365, it is enough that the vast majority of companies DO use 365.

Same thing they do in the Windows OS space, abuse their position in the OS market to create an anti-competitive position in another market(i.e. cloud).

Let's consider a pre-cloud market - would it have been acceptable for MS to charge you more for an OS license if you used Dell hardware rather than MS hardware?

[Anonymous Coward]

I want to work where you work.

[Dan 55]

You want to work in Microsoft?

[43300]

"You are free to NOT buy or use Office 365, and the fact that it includes a 'bonus' teleconference app, that has PLENTY of competitors, does not force you into buying into Office 365. You have a choice as Office 365 is *not* bundled with Windows, you must both choose to install *and* [pay] subscribe to it in order to get the (added) Teams functionality.

No case."

Most companies won't pay for something else if they already have Teams anyway. As for your claim of 'no case;, good to know that we have highly experienced lawyers on here who can make their jiudgement from a news article! If you have a look at what happened with Internet Explorer bundling a few years ago, you will see that it's not as simple as you appear to believe. There is also the question of interoperability with other Microsoft services - is this available to other software providers, using published APIs?

The biggest problem is that this is too late - they should have acted before Teams became so ingrained.

[ParlezVousFranglais]

So EU Regulators getting stroppy with MS about anti-competitive practices on Azure, but at the same time waving through the MS-Activision deal which will ultimately lead to exactly the same abuse of market position in gaming 10 years down the line.

Some consistency would be nice...

[Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells]

Will we see headlines about the EU being anti-business?

[naive]

There is consistency, it is about money and information.

Big Tech and governments live in symbiosis. Governments want the easy access to information they provide in back-doors of their products and services, in exchange de-facto monopolies are not dissolved in an effective manner.

These "investigations" result in fines which are pocket change for Big Tech.

A world, where the 90% market share of MS is spread over several companies offering similar products and services, is much harder to control for governments.

[Robin]

Monopoly Cops

"EU monopoly cops probe complaints about Microsoft Azure"

We could do with those Monopoly Cops turning up to our house on Christmas day.

[Michael]

Re: Monopoly Cops

That was the most unexpected comment I've seen in a while. Cheered me up no end. Bravo.

[moonpunk]

Microsoft License Mobility

This is a practice where Microsoft are very long in the tooth. It's not that they offer "discounts" for those with on-premise licenses to simply port them over to Azure (I'm thinking SQL Server, Windows Server, etc.), it's that they don't offer the same mobility/pricing to other cloud vendors such as GCP and AWS - thereby ensuring the success of Azure.

[Citizen of Nowhere]

>EU antitrust wagons are circling Microsoft's Azure ...

That's one seriously messed up metaphor. I seem to remember cowboys circling their wagons to defend themselves in the westerns of my youth. I don't remember any attack circling, not with wagons certainly ;-)

[Robin]

You'd think of all publications, El Reg would have its vulture-based metaphors on point