Microsoft agrees to pay off $22 million amidst cloud group CISPE's complaint

It’s official. Microsoft has agreed to pay $22 million as part of a deal to settle a complaint related to its cloud services, aiming to avoid further scrutiny from regulators.

The initial report came about a month after CISPE, a group representing cloud infrastructure providers in Europe, reached a settlement with Microsoft to avoid an antitrust investigation last month. The amount was not specified at that time, but now, Reuters reported on the amount, saying that the settlement aims to avoid the antitrust investigation by the EU.

The Europe-based group, supported by Amazon, alleged in 2022 that Microsoft was taking advantage of its dominant software licensing to favor its cloud services, alleging it locked in customers, similar to Apple’s ecosystem practices.

As part of the settlement, Microsoft will develop a product allowing CISPE members to use its Azure infrastructure at equivalent prices to its own offerings, and compensate them for past licensing costs.

Despite this resolution, criticism from AWS and Google persists, as they argue the settlement fails to address broader industry concerns about Microsoft’s competitive practices.

“We are exploring our options to continue to fight against Microsoft’s anti-competitive licensing in order to promote choice, innovation, and the growth of the digital economy in Europe,” says Google Cloud head Amit Zavery.

The Redmond tech giant has had enough of accusations over antitrust violations. Last year, Salesforce-owned Slack, Microsoft Teams’ competitor, filed a complaint that Microsoft gave itself an advantage by bundling its Teams app with the Office suite. EU examined, and Microsoft has now offered Teams separately in Europe and globally.