Britain's communications regulator has recommended that the country's cloud market be investigated by the country's antitrust watchdog, saying certain product features associated with market leaders Amazon.com (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT) could limit competition.
The UK's Office of Communications said on Thursday that a market study had found that high data transfer fees, promised consumer discounts and technical limitations could make it difficult for customers to switch cloud providers or use services from multiple providers.
According to Ofcom, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft will have a combined 70-80% market share in the UK in 2022.
The Competition and Markets Authority will now open an independent investigation to determine whether competition has been affected.
Amazon and Microsoft had no immediate comment.