Microsoft has till 25 July 2025 to answer a £2bn authorized declare, filed on behalf of 1000’s of UK companies that had been allegedly overcharged for operating its Home windows server software program in its opponents’ cloud environments.
The Competitors Enchantment Tribunal (CAT) set the deadline whereas confirming that it has ordered a court docket listening to to happen on 11 December 2025 to can determine if a collective proceedings order (CPO) for the matter needs to be granted.
The CPO is a authorized mechanism that enables a collective motion involving a number of claimants with comparable points to band collectively in a single authorized motion towards an entity on anti-competition grounds.
As beforehand reported by Laptop Weekly in December 2024, the authorized motion towards Microsoft is being overseen by competitors lawyer Maria Luisa Stasi and her authorized crew at complicated disputes decision agency Scott+Scott.
“The listening to in December 2025 will decide whether or not the tribunal grants a collective proceedings order, certifying the declare and paving the best way for it to proceed to full trial,” mentioned Stasi’s crew in an announcement.
“The tribunal moreover ordered that Microsoft should file their response to the authorized declare by 25 July 2025, including that Stasi will file her reply to Microsoft’s response by 10 October 2025.”
In keeping with Stasi’s up to date declare, the UK corporations which have up to now joined the motion may very well be collectively owed round £2bn in compensation due to Microsoft’s controversial cloud licensing techniques.
Microsoft is attempting to pressure clients into utilizing its cloud computing service, Azure, and proscribing competitors within the sector Maria Luisa Stasi, Scott+Scott
On the time of the authorized motion’s launch, Stasi mentioned the lawsuit was designed to “problem Microsoft’s anti-competitive behaviour” for the advantage of all UK companies and organisations which have discovered themselves paying extra to entry the identical software program simply because they select to run it in another person’s cloud.
“Put merely, Microsoft is punishing UK companies and organisations for utilizing Google, Amazon and Alibaba for cloud computing by forcing them to pay extra money for Home windows Server,” mentioned Stasi. “By doing so, Microsoft is attempting to pressure clients into utilizing its cloud computing service, Azure, and proscribing competitors within the sector.”
Laptop Weekly contacted Microsoft for touch upon the most recent improvement within the case, however had not acquired a response on the time of writing.
Microsoft’s cloud licensing practices have been the topic of scrutiny by competitors regulators and commerce associations throughout the UK and Europe for a number of years now.
Throughout its probe into anti-competitive behaviour throughout the UK cloud market, the UK Competitors and Markets Authority (CMA) singled out Microsoft’s resolution to cost clients extra for operating its software program in different individuals’s clouds as some extent of rivalry.
Rival suppliers are additionally gunning for Microsoft over this matter, with particulars rising in September 2024 that cloud large Google had filed a grievance with the European Fee over its competitor’s cloud licensing practices.
On the time of the submitting, the web search large’s public cloud arm claimed Microsoft’s behaviour dangers harming clients and infringes European Union regulation. It additionally accused Microsoft of “leveraging its software program monopoly” to lock clients into its Azure public cloud platform.
