Microsoft to pay off cloud industry group to end EU antitrust complaint

Microsoft is close to reaching a multimillion-euro deal with an Amazon-backed cloud lobby to get it to drop an antitrust complaint with the European Commission, Politico reported on Saturday.

The deal, which hasn’t been accepted yet by members of the lobby group Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE), would see the providers withdraw an investigation request over Microsoft’s cloud-licensing agreements, the report said, citing industry officials with knowledge of the proposal.

The pact would include a possible multimillion-euro payment to the trade association, according to the report, and separate payments could also be made to individual companies.