Microsoft and Oracle accused of anticompetitive practices in the cloud market

Technology trade groups and Google have reached out to the Federal Trade Commission to report unfair business practices in the cloud, including that of Microsoft and Oracle, according to Reuters.

The comments made by Google and the trade groups are in response to a request made by the US agency for information on security issues and competition in the market for data storage and computing power in the cloud.

Scrutiny also arose after Europe’s antitrust authority recently conducted a probe into Microsoft’s licensing agreements that allegedly discouraged rival cloud usage. Plus, various cloud providers have also been criticised for charging fees to take data out.

“Despite vibrant competition in the cloud industry, a few vendors use anticompetitive practices in order to entrench their position, most often by preventing customers from switching providers in search of lower costs, stronger service offerings, and more innovative solutions for their businesses,” said trade group NetChoice – with members including Amazon, Meta and Google – aiming their comments at Microsoft and Oracle.

In its own filing Google says, “licensing terms enforced by Microsoft, Oracle, and other legacy on-premises software providers distort competition in the cloud.”

According to Google, businesses that bought software from Microsoft for their data centres face restrictions and surcharges when migrating those licenses to its competitors.

Matt Garman, SVP for Amazon Web services sales and marketing wrote in a LinkedIn post last year: “[Microsoft] proposes to select cloud providers about whom it is less competitively concerned and allow [Microsoft] software to run only on those providers.”

Garman added: “This is not fairness in licensing and is not what customers want. We continue to hear from customers around the world that [Microsoft]#s discriminatory licensing practices are costing them millions of dollars and the freedom to work with whom they wish.”

A Microsoft spokesperson wrote in a statement to TI: “We have made changes to our cloud licensing terms to address licensing concerns and provide more opportunity for cloud providers. Worldwide, more than 100 cloud providers have already taken advantage of these changes. And as the latest independent data shows, competition between cloud hyperscalers remains healthy. In the last quarter of 2022 Microsoft and Google made small gains on AWS, which continues to remain the market leader by a significant margin.”

TechInformed has reached out to Oracle for comment.