The UK regulator finds competition in public cloud is not working well

2025-07-31 · Publisher : CMA (Royaume-Uni) · Domain : Cloud & DevOps

The CMA publishes its final market investigation decision: competition is not working well in public cloud, with AWS and Microsoft holding entrenched market power. It recommends considering designating them under the digital markets regime.

### Background On 31 July 2025, the **Competition and Markets Authority** (CMA, United Kingdom) issues the final decision of its market investigation into public cloud infrastructure services (IaaS and PaaS), opened on 5 October 2023 and provisionally concluded on 28 January 2025. It finds an adverse effect on competition in public cloud and identifies several obstacles to switching provider. ### Key facts - AWS and Microsoft each hold significant and entrenched unilateral market power, protected by high barriers to entry. - Egress fees make switching provider and multicloud costly. - Microsoft's software licensing penalizes competitors: running Windows Server and SQL Server would cost more outside Azure. - Technical obstacles (interfaces, proprietary services) slow migration; about 65% of customers cite at least one of these technical challenges as a barrier to multicloud, according to figures relayed by Civo. - Recommendation: use the digital markets regime to consider designating AWS and Microsoft with strategic market status (SMS); decision of the CMA board expected in the first quarter of 2026. ### Why it matters The British finding feeds the same arguments as the Data Act and the DMA in the Union: reduce exit fees, open up licences, ease multicloud. For European CIOs, it is a negotiating reference: these three points can be put on the table with hyperscalers. The 2026 follow-up (voluntary commitments rather than designation) shows the regulator's caution. ### Takeaway In July 2025 the CMA confirms the diagnosis of public cloud lock-in, but defers remedies to 2026.

Tags : Réglementation, Hyperscaler, Licence, Multi-cloud, Europe