European Union antitrust regulators are gathering feedback from third parties to evaluate whether the software licensing practices of U.S. cloud computing provider Oracle warrant a closer look. The European Commission is currently seeking market information to determine if the enterprise software firm’s commercial terms restrict fair competition or make it overly difficult for customers to switch platforms. (Global Finance)
The outreach mirrors recent regulatory actions taken against German software vendor SAP, which faced similar questions over ecosystem lock-in and restrictive customer contracts. That inquiry concluded after SAP offered binding commitments to make it easier for clients to end contracts or transition workloads to competing service providers, thereby averting potential European fines of up to 10% of its global annual turnover.
While European competition officials confirmed ongoing monitoring of potential anticompetitive practices across the cloud computing sector, the executive body emphasized that there is no formal investigation into Oracle at this stage. Information gathered during this preliminary phase will determine whether regulators establish an official antitrust case or drop the matter entirely if no evidence of wrongdoing is found.
