European Commission Scrutinizes Oracle Cloud Licensing Practices

The European Commission is examining the licensing practices of U.S. cloud computing company Oracle to determine if they are anticompetitive. Regulators are currently gathering information from third parties to decide whether to launch a formal antitrust case or drop the matter.

This scrutiny follows a similar case involving German rival SAP, which was settled in July. In that instance, SAP agreed to make it easier for customers to terminate contracts or switch service providers to avoid potential fines that could have reached 10% of its global annual turnover.

A spokesperson for the European Commission stated that while the body will continue to monitor the sector for abusive conduct, no formal investigation into any specific company has been initiated at this stage.