The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has secured a four-month extension to complete its investigation into inner workings of the UK public cloud infrastructure services market because it needs more time to investigate Microsoft’s licensing practices.
The investigation, which began in October 2023, was due to conclude on 4 April 2025. However, in a statement published on the CMA website, the organisation confirmed it would not be possible to complete its investigation and publish its final report within this timeline.
Under the terms of the Enterprise Act 2002, the group overseeing the inquiry has been granted a four-month extension to complete its investigation by 4 August 2024, although the CMA stated that it wants to conclude the probe “as soon as possible and in advance” of its new August deadline.
The CMA investigation is focused on examining whether certain commercial behaviours demonstrated by hyperscale cloud companies, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft, are adversely affecting competition within the UK cloud infrastructure services market.
Specifically, the CMA is looking into whether the offering of committed spend discounts, the charging of data egress fees, and the presence of interoperability issues between the different public cloud platforms are making it disadvantageous for customers to switch between providers.
In addition to this, the CMA has also been looking into complaints received about Microsoft’s cloud licensing practices, which have previously seen the software giant accused of charging customers more for running its software in its competitors’ clouds.
The CMA was prompted to investigate the UK cloud infrastructure services market after the communications regulator Ofcom conducted its own study into the market, unearthing evidence of uncompetitive behaviour from AWS and Microsoft.
As a result of its findings, Ofcom then referred the market over to the CMA for further probing in October 2023.
In its statement setting out the reasons for extending the length of its investigation, the CMA cited the “complexity” of the “theories of harm” it is investigating, with particular emphasis on Microsoft’s licensing practices.
“The licensing practices theory of harm… was not examined in-depth in Ofcom’s market study,” it said. “Specifically, the inquiry group [with] regard to the submissions, evidence and analyses provided in response to the CMA’s working papers and the main party hearing, some of [these] were received after the deadline for submission of evidence, as set out in the administrative timetable.”
The statement continued: “These submissions required further analysis and engagement with the main parties to ensure a thorough and appropriate consideration of the complex matters raised.”
Microsoft’s cloud licensing practices are recurring source of scrutiny for the company, with its behaviour here attracting the attention of tech trade bodies, regulators and competition watchdogs in other parts of the world.
News of the extension also comes several days after the CMA published details of the summary evidence shared by AWS, Google and Microsoft during separate hearings, where each party was given the opportunity to feedback on the matters under investigation.
Where its licensing practices are concerned, Microsoft maintained during its July hearing that its behaviour in this area is not negatively impacting AWS or Google, based on the buoyancy of their respective financial results.
