Microsoft Dodges EU Antitrust Probe in Deal with Cloud Lobby
- CISPE ditches EU antitrust complaint against Microsoft
- EU has been informally probing Microsoft’s licensing deals
Microsoft Corp. has avoided the threat of a lengthy European Union antitrust probe into its cloud business after it brokered a deal with an Amazon.com Inc.-backed trade lobby that had complained about its software license agreements.
The association of Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe struck a deal with Microsoft on Wednesday that will see the lobby withdraw its complaint to the EU’s competition department, Microsoft said in a statement. CISPE had argued Microsoft made it too difficult for customers to change cloud providers by tying its business software to its Azure cloud services.