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Written question asked by Julia Lopez (Conservative) on Wednesday, 11 March 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 16 March 2026. It was answered by Kanishka Narayan (Labour) on Friday, 20 March 2026 on behalf of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

Digital Service Providers: Licensing

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of enterprise software licensing practices on the ability of customers to run software across competing cloud platforms on equivalent commercial terms.

Answer

In July last year, the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) cloud market investigation identified a number of potential competition concerns, including barriers that may limit customer choice and make it harder for businesses to switch or run workloads across competing cloud providers on equivalent terms. The CMA recommended that its Board consider prioritising a future Strategic Market Status (SMS) investigation into cloud services under its new digital markets powers.

The Government is committed to promoting a competitive and innovative digital economy and therefore prioritised the commencement of these powers last year, alongside a clear expectation that they be used to support competition and innovation in digital markets. The CMA is independent of Government, and decisions on which markets to investigate are a matter for its Board alone.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
119995
Session
2024-26
Subjects
Software Competition Licensing Digital service providers
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk