Ofcom, Britain’s physique for regulating the communications business, has announced (opens in new tab) a proposal to launch an investigation into the UK cloud market over fears that Amazon Internet Providers (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud are following anti-competitive practices to dominate the house.
Based on Ofcom, each AWS and Azure accounted for 30-40% of the UK cloud market every all through 2021, with Google Cloud taking over an extra 5-10% of shoppers, leaving simply 20-30% remaining for all different rival firms mixed.
The report particulars three key findings that may function a foundation for an investigation if it had been to go forward, which Ofcom says shall be introduced by October 5.
Egress charges had been famous as one of many three restrictions usually consultant of anti-competitive habits, making it pricey for purchasers to drop a service in favor of one other. One other cost-related methodology employed by some firms has been dedicated spend reductions which incentivize customers to enroll in a number of companies beneath the identical firm, broadening the attain of anti-competitiveness.
Lastly, Ofcom recommended that interoperability ought to be thought-about. Cloud firms usually work beneath their very own set of configurations that make it tough to swap firms with out vital effort on the a part of a paying buyer.
Any investigation can be referred to the UK’s Competitors and Markets Authority (CMA) for additional evaluation – a physique that Ofcom mentioned it will work intently with all through the second half of its research.
This comes at a time when an analogous antitrust story is unfolding in Europe, whereby OVHcloud, Aruba SpA, and the Danish Cloud Group have collectively urged the European Fee to analyze Microsoft’s unfair dominance.