Microsoft is under legal fire in the UK, with a £1 billion lawsuit accusing the tech giant of unfairly inflating licensing costs for customers using rival cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform, and Alibaba Cloud.
The lawsuit claims businesses using Microsoft’s cloud-based Windows Server software on third-party infrastructures face steeper costs than those using its Azure platform.
This pricing disparity is alleged to discourage competition and push customers toward Azure.
The legal action, led by competition lawyer Maria Luisa Stasi, seeks over £1 billion in compensation for affected businesses.
Stasi, who also represents the digital rights group Article19, argues that Microsoft’s practices punish UK organizations for choosing alternative cloud providers, restricting market competition in the process.
The lawsuit accuses Microsoft of leveraging its dominant market position in cloud-based server operating systems to enforce higher licensing fees on competitors’ platforms.
The case aims to hold Microsoft accountable, urging the company to disclose the extent of its alleged overcharges and compensate businesses for these additional costs.
This legal challenge is structured as an “opt-out” collective action, meaning all potentially impacted UK companies are automatically included unless they choose otherwise.
Should Microsoft lose, these organizations may be eligible for compensation.
Simultaneously, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is exploring remedies to address anti-competitive practices within the cloud sector.
This lawsuit follows Microsoft’s recent €20 million settlement with the European cloud trade body CISPE over similar allegations of unfair licensing practices within its cloud division.
