Brussels, 11th February 2025 – Today, the European Cloud Competition Observatory (ECCO), established by CISPE to monitor the implementation of the July 2024 Memorandum of Understanding between CISPE and Microsoft and to highlight unfair software licensing practices in the marketplace that more broadly threaten cloud choice for European customers, has published its first reports. As established by CISPE, ECCO created two “observer” roles that are currently fulfilled by the European CIO cloud customer organizations, Cigref (representing French CAC40 CIOs) and Beltug (representing Belgian CIOs).
ECCO rates Microsoft’s progress to date as Amber, indicating that in some areas Microsoft has not yet fully met the expectations of some CISPE members related to the July 2024 agreement. ECCO’s report finds that further progress is needed on business opportunities that Microsoft agreed to collaboratively advance with CISPE as part of its previous agreement with CISPE that led to the Association withdrawing its competition complaint with the European Commission. CISPE members have reported that whilst there continues to be collaborative engagement, so far Microsoft has not made sufficient progress in developing the hosting product proposed under the MoU. Concerns have also been raised about recent changes to Microsoft’s SPLA program. Microsoft has invited more engagement by CISPE members to advance these issues collaboratively.
In the case of Broadcom, CISPE members and customers report little or no engagement from the company on their issues. With the continued imposition of unfair licensing practices, ECCO has no choice but to rate Broadcom’s status as Red/Critical.
Francisco Mingorance, Secretary General of CISPE, commented:
“Last summer, CISPE and Microsoft came to an agreement that sought to end unfair software practices and to create new benefits for all European cloud infrastructure service providers. But, any agreement is only as good as its execution, so we created ECCO to ensure that commitments made were delivered. This report is an important part of that process.”
“The case with Broadcom is completely different, and regulators must be reminded that enforcement action is sometimes essential to curb ongoing unfair practices. In today’s geopolitical context it is imperative that the rule of law should not be compromised in hopes of defusing potential trade tensions.”
In a statement commenting on the ECCO report, Microsoft noted, “We are committed to ensuring a successful relationship with the European cloud community and a strong, durable and collaborative partnership with CISPE. We are reviewing the ECCO report and will work together to chart a path forward with CISPE and its members.”
Both ECCO reports are available for download on the CISPE website at https://cispe.cloud/ecco
First ECCO Report on Microsoft First ECCO Report on Broadcom