The European Commission is circling Microsoft’s cloud business and licensing deals, after four competitors filed complaints about the company’s practices.
The EU is now circulating a questionnaire to the company’s rivals and customers, which seeks to uncover these alleged anti-competitive practices.
“The Commission has information that Microsoft may be using its potentially dominant position in certain software markets to foreclose competition regarding certain cloud computing services,” the questionnaire said.
The questionnaire asks if the terms of Microsoft’s licensing deals with cloud service providers allow rivals to compete effectively; if companies need Microsoft’s OS and apps to complement their own cloud infrastructure in order to compete effectively; and the structure of commercial terms for packaging and reselling Microsoft’s cloud services.
The European Commission has fined Microsoft A$2.4 billion over the past decade for antitrust violations.
“We’re continuously evaluating how we can best support partners and make Microsoft software available to customers across all environments, including those of other cloud providers,” Microsoft said of the potential probe.
