Vestager Thinks Online Cloud Services Need More Competition

Cloud services like Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google need more competitors so European businesses have more choice about where to store their data, the European Union’s tech and antitrust chief says at an online conference Monday, reported Bloomberg Law. 

“We need competition to the cloud solutions that we see today,” said European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, adding it was important that European businesses “feel they have real choices when it comes to how and where to store their data.”

Speaking at an event on Online Competition staged by the German Presidency of the EU in early September, the Commission’s Vice-President for Digital, Margarethe Vestager, also noted how Europe’s online marketplaces should not be controlled by a handful of dominant gatekeeper platforms.

“Europe’s online marketplaces should be vibrant ecosystems, where startups have a real chance to blossom. They shouldn’t be closed shops, controlled by a handful of gatekeeper platforms,” she said.

In wider EU attempts to clamp down on so-called ‘gatekeeper platforms,’ the EU executive will, alongside the Digital Services Act, also present before the close of the year a New Competition Tool, which will be designed to mitigate structural risks in markets and intervene in situations whereby a market is close to ‘tipping.’