Microsoft has reached an agreement with OVHcloud, prompting the withdrawal of an antitrust complaint filed previously with European regulators, according to sources familiar with the matter (via Politico).
The news comes days after it was confirmed that Microsoft had reached a deal with CISPE, the organization responsible for many cloud companies in Europe, to settle the case.
The new agreement will allow OVHcloud customers to use Microsoft solutions more freely in a similar more to the recently announced deal between Microsoft and CISPE.
Microsoft reaches another EU cloud deal
With agreements seemingly in place, the chances of the European Union initiating a full-blown investigation into Microsoft have reduced.
The OVHcloud case stems from a March 2022 complaint, which it, together with Aruba and the Danish Cloud Company, lodged, accusing Microsoft of using unfair licensing to abuse its dominant market position and price customers out of being able to use its services with other providers either by increasing the cost or imposing technical limitations.
Microsoft’s Robin Koch commented: “We are glad we reached this settlement and addressed OVH’s concerns.”
However, OVHcloud is less optimistic about the deal, as a company spokesperson added: “Although this agreement leads to concrete progress for the entire European cloud ecosystem, there is a crucial need for further action to effectively put an end to all anticompetitive practices implemented by hyperscalers in the EU cloud market.”
While Microsoft has made some progress towards closing this case, some remain open and others plague its history, such as a complaint of a similar nature in Spain and criticism over its bundling of Teams into the Microsoft 365 productivity suite.
As the battles continue and pressure mounts from antitrust regulators globally, it’s clear that Microsoft has some way to get yet before it can draw a line under the complaint.
