CMA to double spend with AWS while overseeing anti-trust probe into cloud giant

Pricing schemes

Among the areas the CMA confirmed would be in-scope of its investigation is whether AWS and Microsoft’s preferential pricing schemes were harming competition in the UK cloud market.

While the start date for the offending CMA contract pre-dated its anti-trust probe into AWS and Microsoft by several years, the situation resulted in conflict of interest concerns being raised by public sector IT market watchers.

Among them was Nicky Stewart, former head of ICT at the Cabinet Office. Speaking to Computer Weekly this time around, she said the fact the CMA has renewed its contract with AWS with a year still to run on its anti-trust investigation into the company is concerning.

“Given that the CMA is investigating AWS for anti-competitive behaviour, this award will be construed as a clear conflict of interest,” she said.

“Even more so if the CMA ultimately concludes that term and volume discounts don’t amount to anti-competitive behaviour.”

A CMA source has previously sought to bat away any suggestion that benefiting from discounts on AWS services would compromise the integrity of the watchdog’s investigation, because no staff from the organisation’s corporate and procurement teams are invested in the UK cloud market probe.

Regardless, Stewart said the situation serves to highlight how these types of preferential pricing and committed spend discount schemes are contributing towards the public sector becoming increasingly dependent on the technologies of the US cloud giants.

“Our government is responsible for negotiating and agreeing these types of discounts, which increase as consumption grows,” she said.

“Government is clearly doing nothing to put competitive tension back into a broken market and is clearly demonstrating how locked-in government – including the CMA – really is to AWS.”