Microsoft has nine months to stop another antitrust battle from escalating
Microsoft has reached a settlement with an industry group backed by European cloud infrastructure providers, quelling an antitrust battle that could have embroiled it for years and resulted in fines. But if Microsoft doesn’t hold up its end of the bargain in the next nine months, the group has promised to revive its antitrust complaint with the European Commission.
The group, Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe (CISPE), agreed to withdraw its 2022 complaint to the European Commission, where it accused Microsoft of “irreparably damaging the European cloud ecosystem and depriving European customers of choice in their cloud deployments.” It argued at the time that Microsoft’s licensing terms “exacerbate the harms and introduce...