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The UK’s communications watchdog has called for a probe into Microsoft and Amazon’s dominance of the country’s cloud computing market in the latest challenge to the tech giants from global regulators.
Ofcom said on Wednesday it was “particularly concerned” by the practices of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, which together control between 60 and 70 percent of the UK cloud market. It has proposed referring the sector to the Competition and Markets Authority for further investigation.
Cloud computing is dominated by Amazon and Microsoft, and has become a crucial driver of revenue at the tech giants.
But growth in demand for these services has slowed this year and customers have sought to cut costs, with some complaining of rising prices and the difficulty of moving between cloud providers.
Ofcom’s move comes amid growing global scrutiny over the cloud market. Last year, Microsoft changed its cloud licensing policies in Europe in an effort to head off potential antitrust action from regulators in Brussels.
The tech companies are already the targets of competition watchdogs in the US, UK, and EU on multiple fronts, with investigations into Microsoft’s $75 billion acquisition of video games maker Activision and Amazon’s deal to buy Roomba-maker iRobot.
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