LONDON (Reuters) – British communications regulator Ofcom said it planned to ask the competition regulator to investigate cloud services, a market dominated by Amazon and Microsoft.
Ofcom said on Wednesday that its interim market study had uncovered practices and features which could limit competition, prompting it to refer the issue to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority for further investigation.
“High barriers to switching are already harming competition in what is a fast-growing market,” said Ofcom director Fergal Farragher in a statement.
“We think more in-depth scrutiny is needed, to make sure it’s working well for people and businesses who rely on these services.”
Amazon and Microsoft have a combined market share of 60-70% while Alphabet’s Google is their closest competitor with 5-10%.
Ofcom said it would publish a final report setting out its findings and recommendations by October.
(Reporting by Sarah Young, Editing by Paul Sandle)
