UK regulator may investigate AWS and Microsoft cloud businesses

AWS and Microsoft could potentially face an investigation of their cloud businesses in Britain should the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) follow the recommendation of an independent inquiry group that reports into the UK’s antitrust regulator.

In a release issued on Monday, the group asks that the CMA use its powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA), to “designate the two largest providers, AWS and Microsoft, with strategic market status (SMS) in relation to their respective digital activities in cloud services.”

The new legislation took effect at the start of the year, and UK law firm Macfarlanes wrote in an advisory on the new legislation, issued on January 13, that the “UK’s answer to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) empowers the CMA to designate firms as having “Strategic Market Status” (SMS) in relation to a particular ‘digital activity.’ Once designated, the CMA can impose ‘conduct requirements’ (CRs) on those firms or introduce ‘pro-competition interventions’ (PCIs) to achieve positive outcomes for UK consumers and businesses.”