Competition lawyer Maria Luisa Stasi is bringing the case on behalf of nearly 60,000 businesses that run Windows Server on rival cloud platforms

International News via Reuters:

Microsoft must face a mass lawsuit alleging it overcharged thousands of British businesses to use Windows Server software on cloud computing services provided by Amazon, Google and Alibaba, a London tribunal ruled on Tuesday.

Competition lawyer Maria Luisa Stasi is bringing the case on behalf of nearly 60,000 businesses that run Windows Server on rival cloud platforms. Her lawyers have previously said the claim was worth up to 2.1 billion pounds ($2.8 billion).

They argued at a hearing last year that the businesses were overcharged because Microsoft charges higher wholesale prices for Windows Server than for users of Azure, costs that are passed on to customers and make Azure cheaper than Amazon’s AWS or Google Cloud.

Microsoft said Stasi’s case failed to set out a workable method for calculating any alleged losses and should be thrown out.

But London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal certified the case to proceed towards trial, an early step in the proceedings. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Stasi said in a statement that the ruling was “an important moment for the thousands of organisations impacted by Microsoft’s conduct”.

Microsoft argued at last year’s hearing that its vertically integrated business model – using Windows Server as an input for Azure while also licensing it to rivals – can benefit competition.

Regulators in Britain, Europe and the U.S. are separately examining the practices of Microsoft and other firms in cloud computing.

Last July, an inquiry group from Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority said Microsoft’s licensing practices reduced competition for cloud services “by materially disadvantaging AWS and Google”.

Microsoft said at the time the report had ignored that “the cloud market has never been so dynamic and competitive”.

Last month, the CMA said it would again investigate Microsoft’s software licensing practices in the cloud market.

($1 = 0.7402 pounds)

Reporting by Sam Tobin. Editing by Mark Potter

Britain has among the highest electricity prices in the world due to the structure of its energy market, under which gas sets the price for all generation most of the time

International News via Reuters:

Britain plans to weaken the link between electricity costs and volatile gas prices, which has been blamed for holding back the economy, saying on Tuesday it would push older wind and solar generators onto fixed contracts to reduce energy bills. 

Britain has among the highest electricity prices in the world due to the structure of its energy market, under which gas sets the price for all generation most of the time, weighing heavily on households and making British industry uncompetitive.

That structure sent prices soaring after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and again with the Iran war, prompting Britain to suffer the biggest growth downgrades for 2026 from the OECD and International Monetary Fund due in large part to the economy’s exposure to high energy costs.

Finance minister Rachel Reeves last week touted this new energy market reform as a boost for economic growth. But analysts and business groups were largely underwhelmed by the plan, which could see gas continuing to set the electricity price around 50% of the time by 2030 from 60% now.

“The limited scope and impact of the measures highlighted today reflect the limited ability and willingness of the UK government to make far-reaching changes,” analysts at Bernstein said.

VOLATILE GAS PUTS PRESSURE ON BRITISH ECONOMY

Britain’s wholesale electricity price is set every 30 minutes by the cost of the last energy source used in order to ensure demand is met. So even if wind, solar and nuclear provide 99% of the power required and gas-fired plants are needed to make up the last 1%, then gas sets the price for every buyer and seller.

British companies and consumer groups have been calling for successive governments to reform the market structure.

Domestic energy prices are forecast to rise more than 10% from July as the regulator makes its quarterly price cap adjustment, with wholesale gas costs currently 30% higher than before the Middle East conflict began.

Under its changes, the government will next year offer voluntary long-term contracts to existing low-carbon generators not already being paid a fixed price for their output to reduce the link between gas prices and electricity costs. 

It said the measure would cover around a third of Britain’s power supply.

The government will also increase the Electricity Generator Levy – used to claw back excess profits made by wind and solar generators when electricity prices jump – to 55% from 45%.

Ed Miliband, the energy minister, told a conference organised by the Good Growth Foundation that it would be up to generators whether to switch contracts, but that the change in tax rates would “significantly change the economic incentives for them to do so”.

He said the link between gas and electricity prices had already been weakened since the early 2020s and the trend was continuing, but evolution was not enough.

Energy firms and business groups said the announced changes were a step in the right direction but warned that significant policy and tax changes outside of traditional fiscal events like government budgets were damaging for investor confidence.

They also called for the government to reduce environmental policy costs in electricity bills.

“At a time of extreme volatility, clarity and confidence are paramount,” said Rain Newton-Smith, head of the CBI business group. “A stable, affordable energy system is a prerequisite for a thriving economy.”

The government said it would also look to go faster on building renewable infrastructure on public land, which could potentially allow up to 10 gigawatts of new capacity, and would overhaul planning and land-use rules to speed up grid connections and infrastructure upgrades.

Additional reporting by Sam Tabahriti; Writing by Kate Holton; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Kirsten Donovan and Joe Bavier

A war of words over who should ultimately take the blame for appointing Labour veteran Peter Mandelson to Britain’s highest diplomatic post despite his history and known ties to late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has piled pressure on Starmer

International News via Reuters:

A former top foreign ministry official said on Tuesday he had faced “constant pressure” from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office to speed up the appointment of his pick as the ambassador to the U.S., deepening a row that threatens the British leader.

A war of words over who should ultimately take the blame for appointing Labour veteran Peter Mandelson to Britain’s highest diplomatic post despite his history and known ties to late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has piled pressure on Starmer, prompting calls by critics for his resignation.

Starmer has said he was “wrong” to appoint Mandelson to the role and has expressed regret, but on Monday put the blame firmly on foreign ministry officials for failing to tell him that a security vetting body had advised against his appointment – something, he said, would have stopped him from employing the new ambassador.

On Tuesday, it was the turn of Olly Robbins, the foreign ministry’s former top official who was sacked late on Thursday after Starmer and foreign minister Yvette Cooper said they had lost confidence in him, to mount his defence.

He was quick to shift the focus to Starmer’s office.

ROBBINS SAYS HE WAS UNDER ‘CONSTANT PRESSURE’

“I walked into a situation in which there was already a very, very strong expectation … that he needed to be in post and in America as quickly as humanly possible,” Robbins told a parliamentary committee.

“I think throughout January (2025), honestly, my office, the foreign secretary’s office, were under constant pressure,” Robbins said. “There was an atmosphere of constant chasing,” he said, describing “very frequent phone calls” from the private office of Starmer’s Number 10 Downing Street.

Robbins’ account is likely to increase the pressure on Starmer, who after winning the largest majority in modern history for Labour at a national election in 2024 is facing new calls to step down over a scandal which has run for months.

Labour lawmakers have said there would not be an immediate move to oust Starmer, especially as the party is expected to suffer big losses in local elections in England and regional votes in Wales and Scotland in just over two weeks.

But the return of the focus on Starmer’s Downing Street operation will do little to appease those lawmakers who have repeatedly raised concerns over what some call a bunker mentality and lack of access.

WAR OF WORDS WIDENS BETWEEN OFFICIALS AND DOWNING STREET

Robbins said that when he took office on January 20, 2025, Mandelson’s appointment had already been announced, approval had been given by King Charles, it had been agreed by the U.S. government and Mandelson was being granted access to highly classified briefings on a case-by-case basis. He said it would have damaged relations with the U.S. if the foreign office had blocked the appointment at that stage.

It was not clear whether Downing Street even wanted the foreign ministry to complete so-called developed vetting clearance – a status that allows individuals access to information regarded as top secret, Robbins said.

It was down to the foreign ministry to complete that process, he said, and officials had stuck to a system whereby reports from a unit called UK Security Vetting were never shared with ministers to protect the candidate’s confidentiality.

But he did say the unit had advised the appointment was a borderline case and they were leaning against granting clearance – a message Starmer says his government never received.

“Whilst I think the department felt under pressure, we were proud of the fact we’d not bowed to that pressure,” Robbins said.

Robbins’ defence again cranks up pressure on Starmer, who had won a brief reprieve from his critics after limiting Britain’s role in the Iran war.

Even some in top team of ministers have said they were concerned about Mandelson’s appointment.

Asked what went through his mind over the decision to appoint him, energy minister Ed Miliband told Sky News: “That it could blow up, that it could go wrong.”

“I had a conversation with David Lammy (then foreign minister and now deputy prime minister) about it before the appointment, and I said I was worried about it.”

Robbins also revealed that Starmer’s office had been pushing for an ambassadorial job to be found for Matthew Doyle, the prime minister’s former senior communications director who has been removed from the Labour Party after he campaigned for a man who was a convicted sex offender.

Doyle has apologised for his actions.

Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, additional reporting by Sarah Young, Sam Tabahriti, Muvija M, editing by Kate Holton and Tomasz Janowski