Microsoft settles €20 million to escape EU antitrust investigation

According to the information obtained by Zhitong Finance APP, Microsoft (MSFT.US) has reached a €20 million (approximately $21.7 million) settlement agreement with the European cloud computing association CISPE, and has agreed to allow members of the association to use Microsoft's related software and services. This will exempt the tech giant from hefty fines and further investigation by the European Union.

CISPE had previously filed a complaint with the European Commission, accusing Microsoft's cloud business of unfair practices that affected the benign competition in the entire market. Now, Microsoft has agreed to compensate CISPE members for their revenue losses over the past two years. Microsoft will also launch a new product that will allow CISPE members to operate Microsoft's Azure cloud infrastructure on their platform at a fair price. The product will be delivered within 9 months.

Microsoft President Brad Smith stated, "After more than a year of collaboration with CISPE and its European members, I am pleased that we have not only addressed their past concerns, but also worked together to chart a path forward that brings more competition to the cloud computing market in Europe and beyond."

CISPE announced that it will no longer initiate or support complaints on these issues in Europe or elsewhere, and will withdraw its complaint from the European Union. CISPE Secretary-General Francisco Mingorance stated, "CISPE's suspicion of Microsoft is beneficial, and we believe that this agreement will provide a fair competitive environment for European cloud infrastructure service providers and their customers."

It is worth noting that Amazon's AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Alibaba Cloud are not included in the settlement agreement. AWS criticized this deal in a statement to the media. Company spokesperson Alia Ilyas stated that Microsoft has only made limited concessions to some CISPE members, indicating that there are no technical barriers preventing it from doing the right thing for every cloud customer. Alia Ilyas further added that this deal "offers no help to the vast majority of Microsoft customers who still cannot use their chosen cloud services in Europe and around the world."