Ofcom, Britain’s physique for regulating the communications trade, has introduced (opens in new tab) a proposal to launch an investigation into the UK cloud market over fears that Amazon Internet Providers (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud are following anti-competitive practices to dominate the house.

In response to Ofcom, each AWS and Azure accounted for 30-40% of the UK cloud market every all through 2021, with Google Cloud taking over an extra 5-10% of shoppers, leaving simply 20-30% remaining for all different rival corporations mixed.

The report particulars three key findings that may function a foundation for an investigation if it have been to go forward, which Ofcom says will probably be introduced by October 5.

Ofcom challenges UK cloud market

Egress charges have been famous as one of many three restrictions sometimes consultant of anti-competitive habits, making it expensive for purchasers to drop a service in favor of one other. One other cost-related methodology employed by some corporations has been dedicated spend reductions which incentivize customers to join a number of companies beneath the identical firm, broadening the attain of anti-competitiveness.

Lastly, Ofcom instructed that interoperability needs to be thought of. Cloud corporations sometimes work beneath their very own set of configurations that make it troublesome to swap corporations with out important effort on the a part of a paying buyer.

Any investigation could be referred to the UK’s Competitors and Markets Authority (CMA) for additional evaluation – a physique that Ofcom mentioned it will work intently with all through the second half of its research.

This comes at a time when an identical antitrust story is unfolding in Europe, whereby OVHcloud, Aruba SpA, and the Danish Cloud Group have collectively urged the European Fee to analyze Microsoft’s unfair dominance.

• Want someplace to retailer your information on-line? Take a look at one of the best cloud storage options and greatest cloud backup instruments