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London, United Kingdom: Microsoft is facing a £1.7-billion ($2.3 billion) class action lawsuit in Britain alleging that it abused its dominant market position to overcharge businesses, claimants said Thursday.
The case was brought by digital markets regulation expert Maria Luisa Stasi on behalf of around 59,000 British businesses and organisations.
The lawsuit claims that Microsoft overcharged customers using its Windows Server software on rival cloud computing platforms.
"For years, Microsoft's practices have had real financial impact on both public and private organisations," Stasi said.
Judges at the Competition Appeal Tribunal on Tuesday certified the case to proceed to trial, ruling that it had a "reasonable prospect of success".
"Microsoft is alleged to be abusing its dominance in the paid server OS (operating system) market to harm competition in the cloud computing services market," the judges said.
If the case is successful, claimants estimate that compensation could reach £1.7 billion to £2.1 billion.
Microsoft plans to appeal against the decision, a spokesperson said.
"We also dispute the underlying allegations by the class representative, and today's decision makes no final determination on those claims," the spokesperson said.
Separately, Microsoft's cloud computing practices are under scrutiny by regulators in Britain and the European Union.
British regulators are investigating the company's software licencing practises in the cloud market to determine whether it should be given "strategic market status," subjecting it to special requirements to improve competition.
