Microsoft is facing a lawsuit in the UK, claiming it has overcharged rival cloud customers by forcing businesses to pay higher fees for its Windows Server software when run on cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud. The lawsuit, filed on December 3, 2024, alleges that businesses using these competitors’ cloud services are being unfairly charged more than those using Microsoft’s own Azure platform.
The legal action, led by competition lawyer Maria Luisa Stasi, seeks over £1 billion in damages for UK businesses. The lawsuit argues that Microsoft is exploiting its market dominance in the cloud sector to push customers towards its Azure cloud service by making it cheaper for them to run Windows Server on Azure compared to other providers. Stasi claims that this practice restricts competition and unfairly penalizes UK businesses using AWS, Google Cloud, or Alibaba Cloud for cloud computing.
The class action lawsuit, which includes thousands of UK businesses, is an “opt-out” collective case, meaning any affected business is automatically part of the lawsuit and can receive compensation if Microsoft loses.
In response to the lawsuit, Microsoft declined to comment. However, the case is part of a broader examination of anti-competitive practices in the cloud industry. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is also investigating such practices and is expected to release a decision soon. This follows Microsoft’s previous settlement in the European Union over similar complaints, where the company agreed to align pricing for running its software on smaller cloud platforms with that of its own Azure service.
The lawsuit and ongoing investigations highlight increasing scrutiny over Microsoft’s software licensing practices and their impact on competition in the cloud computing market.
