The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is requesting information from the public to gain more insight into cloud providers’ business practices, reflecting concerns over their impact on the competition, security issues, and overall market power.
The
government agency is specifically seeking input from users of cloud
services, academics, civil society groups, and industry participants.
- Amazon
Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Oracle lead
the U.S. cloud computing sector, thus raising concerns among the FTC,
the Justice Department, and the Biden Administration over potential
security issues and their unfair influence over U.S. consumers.
- The
aforementioned cloud giants have been scrutinized due to what the Biden
administration sees as an abuse of market power driven by questionable
business practices, including a lack of transparent pricing,
discouraging cloud usage from external cloud companies, and mergers that
hinder competition.
- Those who wish to submit a comment to the FTC’s Request for Information have until May 22 to do so.
- Last year, Europe’s antitrust authority began probing Microsoft through a questionnaire that examined the U.S. software giant’s alleged anticompetitive practices.