Microsoft Corp. and an Amazon Web Services Inc.’s dominance in the cloud services market must face an antitrust investigation under the UK’s new rules for digital markets, the country’s watchdog said after a 21 month long investigation.

A UK antitrust regulator group has raised concerns about the dominant positions of Amazon and Microsoft in cloud computing, asserting that their market power is detrimental to competition. The group's report singles out Microsoft's licensing practices as particularly problematic,

Microsoft’s software licensing terms are harming competition in the cloud computing market, an investigation ordered by the UK antitrust regulator has found, driving up costs for its Big Tech rivals.