![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/website\/images\/logos\/logo-euronews-stacked-outlined-72x72-grey-9.svg\"){kind=logo}
\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
\n Published on
\n 31\/07\/2025 – 16:25 GMT+2\n <\/p>\n
\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
The United Kingdom\u2019s antitrust authority says that Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are hurting competition in cloud computing, holding a combined 60 per cent to 80 per cent of the market.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After a 21-month investigation, the UK\u2019s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said\u00a0 Microsoft and AWS each have an estimated 30 to 40 per cent of the market.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Google, the third-biggest competitor in the market, only has five to 10 per cent market share.<\/p>\n
The rest is shared between private providers that do not have the capacity to compete with the tech giants, making Microsoft and AWS\u2019s market share \u201clikely to endure,\u201d the report said<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The final report comes as experts<\/a> voice concerns to Euronews Next about national security risks that could arise from using foreign tech companies for cloud services. Some governments in places like Denmark<\/a> and the Netherlands<\/a> are looking to swap providers.\u00a0<\/p>\n High costs, licensing issues causing cloud concentration<\/p>\n Cloud providers give customers access to shared computing resources whenever needed so they don\u2019t have to own the hardware and software for programmes they rely on everyday, the report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n This includes processing, storage, networking, and services that can be used to manage applications in the cloud.\u00a0<\/p>\n Competition in the cloud services market is challenging for new companies to enter, the report continued, because of high costs to get started. Additionally, very few organisations change their cloud providers due to fees and a complicated data transfer process between companies.<\/p>\n Microsoft was singled out in the UK government report for licensing practices that allegedly make it difficult for AWS and Google to compete. The company charges fees when those services are used on other platforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n This affects the final price that other providers like AWS or Google would charge customers for using Microsoft products on their servers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese barriers can restrict customers from responding to attractive offers or accessing innovative new services from another provider, leading to weaker competition between providers,\u201d the report found.\u00a0<\/p>\n What comes next?\u00a0<\/p>\n The CMA recommended that the UK government determine whether Microsoft and AWS should be designated as having strategic market status (SMS) in the cloud services market.\u00a0<\/p>\n To do so, the government would launch a nine-month investigation that uses \u201cevidence-based investigations, consulting and engaging with a wide range of stakeholders. It will decide by early 2026 whether to proceed.<\/p>\n If both companies get this designation under UK law, the government will create rules and \u201ctargeted interventions\u201d that the tech firms will have to follow to encourage competition.<\/p>\n Microsoft and AWS could be fined up to 10 per cent of their global turnover if they are found in violation of these measures.<\/p>\n In a statement to Euronews Next, Amazon said the report \u201cdisregards clear evidence of robust competition\u201d in the country\u2019s IT sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n The recommended SMS investigation is \u201cunwarranted and undermines the substantial investment and innovation that have already benefitted hundreds of thousands of businesses,\u201d the company added.<\/p>\n \u201cIt risks making the UK a global outlier at a time when businesses need regulatory predictability for the UK to maintain international competitiveness,\u201d Amazon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Euronews Next reached out to Microsoft but did not receive an immediate reply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 31\/07\/2025 – 16:25 GMT+2 ADVERTISEMENT The United Kingdom\u2019s antitrust authority says that Microsoft and Amazon Web…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2151,7724,1341,21759,59,57,58,696,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-37111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-amazon","tag-cloud-computing","tag-competition","tag-competition-authority","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-microsoft","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}