Microsoft faces £2.1 billion UK class lawsuit over cloud software licensing

Her lawyers have previously said the claim is worth up to 2.1 billion pounds (2.8 billion).They argued at a hearing last year that the businesses were overcharged because Microsoft charges higher wholesale prices for Windows Server than for users of its Azure platform. These costs, they said, are passed on to customers and make Azure cheaper than Amazon’s AWS or Google Cloud.Microsoft said Stasi’s case failed to set out a workable method for calculating any alleged losses and should be thrown out.However, London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal certified the case to proceed toward trial, an early step in the proceedings.A Microsoft spokesperson said the company plans to appeal Tuesday’s decision. “We also dispute the underlying allegations by the class representative (Stasi), and today’s decision makes no final determination on those claims,” the spokesperson said.Stasi said in a statement that the ruling was “an important moment for the thousands of organisations impacted by Microsoft’s conduct”.Microsoft argued at last year’s hearing that its vertically integrated business model—using Windows Server as an input for Azure while also licensing it to rivals—can benefit competition.Regulators in Britain, Europe and the United States are separately examining the practices of Microsoft and other firms in cloud computing.Last July, an inquiry group from Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority said Microsoft’s licensing practices reduced competition for cloud services “by materially disadvantaging AWS and Google”.Microsoft said at the time the report ignored the fact that “the cloud market has never been so dynamic and competitive”.Last month, the CMA said it would again investigate Microsoft’s software licensing practices in the cloud market.