Microsoft Battled Barrage Of EU Antitrust Complaints; From Unfair Licensing Practices To Activision Blizzard Acquisition

  • A collection of Microsoft Corp's MSFT rivals, including OVH and Amazon.com Inc's AMZN AWS, fired off an antitrust complaint to European Union watchdogs alleging unfair licensing practices to lure customers in the region to its cloud infrastructure.
  • CISPE, a European cloud-company policy group, called for a probe into Microsoft's business model before some companies go extinct.
  • It's the fourth current complaint targeting Microsoft at the Brussels-based European Commission.
  • Bowing to months of pressure from rival cloud providers, Microsoft announced changes to its software licensing terms earlier this year to make it easier for customers of rival cloud-service companies in Europe to migrate their existing software to these other networks
  • But CISPE said it failed "to tackle the harms to consumers and providers" outlined in a previous complaint to the EU.
  • The European Union has investigated Microsoft's acquisition of video game publisher Activision Blizzard, Inc ATVI, citing concerns that the tech giant "may foreclose access" to Activision's games, the Washington Post reported.
  • So far, regulators in Saudi Arabia and Brazil have green-lit the deal. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have yet to issue a decision.
  • Sony Group Corp SONY, one of Microsoft's primary competitors in the video game industry, has warned regulators that the merger could give Microsoft an edge in the industry by providing the company control of the lucrative Call of Duty franchise.
  • Price Action: MSFT shares are down by 0.81% at $227.02 premarket on the last check Wednesday.
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