Well done France! Yesterday, the two French parliamentary chambers reached a compromise text that will enshrine fair software licensing for cloud customers in French law. Many regulators around the world are looking at the issue, but this is the first national legislation to recognize the negative impact of unfair software licensing practices in the cloud sector and to call on the competition regulator to act on it within 18 months.

The evidence of harm caused by unfair software licensing practices used by popular software vendors, including Microsoft and Broadcom, is mounting. Research from Professor Jenny, data from our own members, and studies from Savanta and others all point to restrictive practices of software vendors that raise costs for cloud providers and prices for customers.

Commenting on yesterday’s agreement, Francisco Mingorance, secretary general of CISPE, said;

“With competition cases against serial transgressors taking time, it is important that harmed parties have a clear deadline in which action will be taken to end these unfair software licensing practices.

 

We are pleased that France has taken a lead on this issue and will be closely considering our next step on behalf of our members. Fair software licensing is a core principle that should be upheld everywhere to help accelerate a dynamic, growing and fair market for cloud services in Europe.”