According to a questionnaire seen by Reuters, EU antitrust investigators are questioning Microsoft’s (MSFT.O) rivals and customers about its cloud business and licencing arrangements, which may lead to a formal probe and fresh scrutiny of the U.S. software major.
In the preceding decade, the European Commission fined Microsoft a total of 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion) for violating EU antitrust regulations and failing to comply with its order to stop anti-competitive conduct.
After German software firm NextCloud, France’s OVHcloud (OVH.PA), and two other companies filed complaints over Microsoft’s cloud operations, the corporation found itself back on the EU competition enforcer’s radar.
The questionnaire stated, “The Commission has evidence that Microsoft may be exploiting its potentially dominant position in some software industries to obstruct competition on certain cloud computing services.”
Regulators questioned whether Microsoft’s licence agreements with cloud service providers enable competitors to compete effectively.