Britain's media regulator said it has "significant concerns" that Amazon and Microsoft are illegally restte the business practices of both companies' cloud unitsricting competition in the cloud services market. The U.K. Office of Communications (Ofcom) is planning to ask the country's antitrust watchdog to further investiga.
- The proposed referral comes after Ofcom launched in own probe of the cloud services market in September.
- That market
study uncovered "concerning practices" by tech firms offering public
cloud infrastructure, such as high barriers that make it harder for
cloud customers to switch vendors.
- These barriers include
so-called "egress fees" that companies charge to transfer data out of a
cloud. Ofcom said Microsoft and Amazon charge "significantly higher"
fees than other providers.
- Ofcom believes these "hyperscalers" make it difficult for other companies to enter and compete in the market.
- Given the findings of the probe, it's referring the case to Britain's Competition and Markets Authority for further analysis.
- Combined, Amazon and Microsoft claim 60% to 70% of the U.K. market share for cloud services.
- The third largest vendor, Google, has 5% to 10%.
