In recent days, we have seen criticism here and there about the level of free access offered by hyperscalers such as AWS, Azure or GCP . According to their detractors, they would abuse their position of strength and their large portfolio to make startups and other companies hook on their service with 0 euro bills, before making them pay a high price once they are dependent. . A practice as old as the world, also practiced by local actors, but it is the scale and the lack of transparency of the major actors that would be at the heart of the problem.
European parliamentarians have just taken up the subject through a written question to the committee in which they evoke the anti-competitive practices of American players including “ free offers, or” cloud credits ” are particularly questionable, because they are comparable to dumping: offered on a very large scale in the European digital ecosystem, these offers are neither framed, nor limited, nor subject to taxation or subject to obligations transparency “.
Thus, they ask the Commission whether it is” informed of these practices, in particular of the appropriations cloud? Does it plan to commission studies to better characterize their impact on the conditions of competition, the freedom of choice of users and the free flow of data on the single market? “.
They also raise the question of possible sanctions” if their link with dumping were proven? ”. No response has yet been given.
