Ofcom: UK Cloud Market Study Uncovers Features That Could Limit Competition; Refers To CMA

(RTTNews) - Ofcom in the UK has referred the public cloud infrastructure services market to the Competition and Markets Authority or CMA to carry out a market investigation. The CMA will conduct an independent investigation.

In October 2022, Ofcom launched a study into cloud services in the UK, and published interim findings in April 2023.

"Some UK businesses have told us they're concerned about it being too difficult to switch or mix and match cloud provider, and it's not clear that competition is working well. So, we're referring the market to the CMA for further scrutiny, to make sure business customers continue to benefit from cloud services," Fergal Farragher, Ofcom's Director responsible for the Market Study, stated.

There are two leading providers of cloud infrastructure services in the UK: Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, which had a combined market share of 70-80% in 2022. Google is the closest competitor with a share of 5-10%.