Nextcloud claims that Microsoft has blocked other cloud service providers from taking advantage of their position to extend their reach in neighboring markets, pushing users more strongly into their ecosystems. Although this type of preference is not in itself illegal under the competition laws of the European Union, if a company abuses its dominant market position, it may violate the law. Microsoft has done this, according to the complaint, not through a technical advantage or profit per sale, but by strongly favoring its products and services, giving them self-preference over other services. Specifically, it is pointed out that Microsoft has increased its market share in the EU to 66%, while the market share of suppliers fell from 26% to 16%. Nextcloud, in particular, points out that by pushing consumers to connect and give their data to Microsoft, the company is limiting the choice of consumers, and creating an unfair barrier for other companies that offer services that compete with them. Given that cloud and operating system integration is now the norm when it comes to major platforms such as Android, iOS and of course Windows, do our readers think NextCloud has a point, or are they stuck in the past? Let us know below.A group of companies known as Coalition for a level playing field (Coalition for a level playing field), led by open source cloud company Nextcloud, has submitted a complain formal before the European Commission about him Microsoft’s anti-competitive behavior for integrating your oneDrive cloud, Teams and other services into Windows 10 and Windows 11. Microsoft is being increasingly targeted in the European Union, with the company facing another challenge by Slack in the EU currently. This would give European consumers a free choice among service offerings that should compete fairly on their merits. And that Microsoft must support open standards and interoperability.by bundling, pre-installing, or leveraging additional Microsoft services) while preserving a level playing field. No abuse of Microsoft’s dominant position in the OS and related markets (e.g.NextCloud and their “Coalition for a Level Playing Field” say these deliberate abusive practice needs to be addressed without delay. Together with the other members of the coalition, we are asking the antitrust authorities in Europe to enforce a level playing field, giving customers a free choice and giving the competition a fair chance. This kind of behavior is bad for the consumer, for the market, and, of course, for local businesses in the EU. Copy an innovators’ product, bundle it with your own dominant product, and kill their business, then stop innovating. This is quite similar to what Microsoft did when it killed the competition in the browser market, stopping nearly all browser innovations for over a decade. ![]() They claim behavior as described above is at the core of this dramatic level of growth of the global tech giants in Europe, and is very similar to what happened in the late 90s when Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer with Windows thereby destroying Netscape.įrank Karlitschek, Nextloud’s CEO and founder, said: ![]() The effect has been that when it comes to cloud storage, over the last years, Microsoft, Google and Amazon have grown their market shares to 66% of the total European market, with local (European) providers declining from 26% to 16%. ![]() It illustrates anti-competitive practices such as “self-preferencing” on the basis of the market dominance of Windows. They claim that Microsoft’s combination of the dominant Windows (operating software) with the OneDrive (cloud) offering makes it nearly impossible to compete with their SaaS services. Another example is Microsoft’s “Teams” which is being pushed successfully into the market as a default part of Windows 11. They claim Microsoft is integrating “Microsoft 365” deeper and deeper into their wider service and software portfolio, including Windows, saying Microsoft’s “OneDrive” is privileged as a choice within Windows’ operation whenever Windows users deal with file storage. A coalition of EU companies, led by file hosting company Nextcloud, has filed a complaint with the EU as well as the German anti-trust authorities, claiming Microsoft is abusing its dominant position in operating systems to expand into unrelated areas such as collaboration and cloud services.
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