Microsoft Hits £1bn UK Lawsuit Over ‘Anti-Competitive’ Cloud Licensing Tactics

Microsoft finds itself on the receiving end of a £1 billion legal claimfiled on behalf of thousands of UK businesses that were allegedly overcharged to run their Windows Server software in their competitors’ cloud environments.

The claim has been brought by competition lawyer María Luisa Stasi and her legal team at complex dispute resolution firm Scott+Scott to the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal.

It is claimed that UK companies could be owed more than £1 billion in compensation due to Microsoft’s controversial cloud licensing tactics, which have been the subject of scrutiny by competition regulators and trade organizations across the UK and Europe for some time.

Specifically, Stasi and his team allege that UK companies were charged more to run Windows Server software in cloud environments hosted by Microsoft’s main public cloud rivals, namely Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform and Alibaba Cloud.

“All UK businesses and organizations that purchased licenses for Windows Server through Amazon’s AWS, Google Cloud Platform and Alibaba Cloud may have been overcharged and will be represented in this new ‘opt-out’ class action ‘” Stasi representatives said in a statement.

An opt-out class action makes it possible for a class action suit like this to proceed against a company like Microsoft without first getting those supposedly affected by the allegations involved on its side.

In a statement, Stasi said the lawsuit aims to “challenge Microsoft’s anti-competitive behavior” for the benefit of all UK businesses and organizations that have found themselves paying more to access the same software just because they choose to run it in the Microsoft cloud. another person.

“Put simply, Microsoft is punishing UK businesses and organizations for using Google, Amazon and Alibaba for cloud computing, forcing them to pay more money for Windows Server,” Stasi said. “By doing so, Microsoft is attempting to force customers to use its cloud computing service, Azure, and restrict competition in the sector.

“This lawsuit aims to challenge Microsoft’s anti-competitive behavior, pressure them to reveal exactly how much companies in the UK have been illegally penalized, and pay back organizations that have been unfairly overcharged.”

Computer Weekly reached out to Microsoft for a response to news of this legal claim, but a company representative said they have no comment to make at this time.

James Hain-Cole, a partner at Scott+Scott, said the company is proud to support Stasi in its efforts to “secure compensation” for those affected and “hold Microsoft accountable” for its conduct.

“Class actions level the playing field and allow organizations to fight anti-competitive behavior by some of the world’s largest companies,” Hain-Cole said. “(This) case against Microsoft aims to do exactly that.”

News of the legal action comes after Google filed a complaint with the European Commission (EC). over Microsoft’s cloud licensing practices in September 2024, and several months after the software giant reached a $22 million deal with cloud infrastructure service providers in Europe’s trade body (CISPE) which resulted in it withdrawing a similar complaint against Microsoft to the EC.