Microsoft: Microsoft reaches settlement on CISPE antitrust complaint

Microsoft has struck a multimillion-dollar deal to resolve a CISPE antitrust complaint about its cloud-computing licensing practices, the U.S. tech giant said Wednesday, avoiding an EU antitrust investigation that could have led to a hefty fine. CISPE, whose members include Amazon and many small EU cloud providers, filed the complaint with the European Commission in late 2022, saying Microsoft’s new contractual terms imposed on Oct. 1 were harming Europe’s cloud-computing ecosystem.

Microsoft ranks behind market leader Amazon in the cloud computing sector, but ahead of Alphabet’s Google.

“After more than a year of working with CISPE and its European members, I am pleased that we have not only addressed their concerns of the past, but together we have charted a path forward that will bring even more competition to the cloud computing market in Europe and beyond,” said Microsoft CEO Brad Smith.

Microsoft will develop a product that will enable CISPE members to run Microsoft software on their platforms on the US tech giant’s Azure cloud infrastructure, at prices equal to Microsoft’s, CISPE said.

The group said Microsoft will also compensate CISPE members for lost revenue related to licensing costs over the past two years.

The settlement does not cover Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform and AliCloud. CISPE said it would withdraw its EU complaint and would not initiate or support complaints on these issues in Europe or elsewhere.