An independent Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) inquiry group has provisionally found a general lack of competition in the UK cloud services market. In addition, the group has recommended that the CMA designate Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft with strategic market status under the new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA) and consider making interventions accordingly. This will be welcome news to many consumers of cloud services, particularly those uncomfortably reliant on a single legacy supplier, or wishing to diversify their cloud infrastructure for resilience.
The extractive sector, with its potent cocktail of high financial stakes and intricate global supply chains, has long been viewed as a fertile ground for corruption. In this introductory section of an insight, originally published by McGill Journal of Dispute Resolution, we set the scene of the entire publication.