CISPE denies it is close to settling an antitrust complaint with Microsoft

(Reuters) – European trade group CISPE on Saturday denied reports that it was close to an agreement with Microsoft to withdraw an antitrust complaint filed with the European Commission over the U.S. company’s cloud computing licensing practices.

CISPE, whose members include Amazon and 26 small EU cloud service providers, filed a complaint with the European Commission in late 2022, maintaining that Microsoft’s new contract terms harm the European cloud computing ecosystem.

Politico previously reported that Microsoft was close to reaching a multimillion-dollar deal with CISPE for the company to withdraw its complaint, citing two anonymous sources.

“These rumors are untrue,” cloud infrastructure service providers in Europe said when contacted by Reuters regarding the Politico report. “Discussions between CISPE and Microsoft are ongoing and although proposals have been put forward, no agreement has been reached.”

“Any offer will have to be submitted for approval to the General Meeting of the association, which involves 34 European cloud service providers located in more than 14 member states,” he added.

Politico also reported that the deal has not yet been approved by CISPE members. It said separate payments could also be made to individual companies, citing one anonymous source.

Microsoft, Amazon and the European Commission did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Politico report outside normal business hours.

Reuters previously reported that Microsoft is in talks with CISPE to resolve the European Union’s antitrust complaint.

In its complaint, CISPE said that “Microsoft’s current position and behavior irreparably harms the European cloud ecosystem and deprives European customers of choice in their cloud deployments.”

A bipartisan resolution of this issue could help Microsoft prevent a possible lengthy EU investigation that could result in possible fines and orders to change its business practices.

(Reporting by Gursimran Kaur, Utkarsh Shetti and Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Tom Hogue and Ana Nicolaci da Costa)