Cloud inquiry chair quits UK competition watchdog over glacial pace of reform
By Paul Kunert — 04 Mar 2026 09:33 UTC
Summary
Kip Meeks, chair of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) cloud inquiry, resigned about a year early citing frustration at the slow implementation of the CMA’s 2025 recommendations to address dominance and interoperability issues in the UK cloud market.
Meeks’ provisional findings had highlighted that the market largely favoured AWS and Microsoft, with concerns for customers around interoperability and Microsoft licensing. Despite advice to designate the two hyperscalers with strategic market status, the CMA has not yet enacted stronger measures, prompting Meeks’ departure in late January.
Key Points
- Kip Meeks left the CMA a year before his term ended, criticising the slow pace of reform following the 2025 cloud market report.
- The 2025 inquiry found AWS and Microsoft account for up to 90% of UK cloud services and recommended stricter oversight (strategic market status).
- Customers continue to face interoperability problems and contentious Microsoft licensing policies that can lock workloads to Azure.
- The CMA has not publicly answered questions about replacements, decision delays, or whether proposals are being voted on soon.
- The watchdog itself uses AWS and increased its cloud spend in 2024, and dropped an investigation strand on committed-discount spending early on.
- Meeks warned the CMA’s independence could be at risk if decision-making shifts towards internal CMA executives rather than independent panel voting.
- Doug Gurr, a former Amazon executive, was recently confirmed as CMA Chair — Meeks’ team say a link to that appointment was queried but the CMA did not comment.
Content summary
The article reports that Meeks resigned due to frustration that the CMA has not acted swiftly on its cloud market recommendations, despite clear provisional findings that AWS and Microsoft hold dominant positions which harm competition and interoperability. The story notes unresolved questions about governance, potential conflicts of interest, and the CMA’s own use of hyperscaler services. Attempts to get detailed responses from the CMA about replacements and voting timetables were unanswered.
Context and relevance
This matters because regulatory delay leaves UK customers and smaller cloud players exposed to entrenched market power and vendor lock-in. The CMA’s next moves (or lack of them) will shape competition, pricing and migration costs for enterprises — and could set a precedent for how aggressively the UK regulates big tech in cloud services.
Why should I read this?
Short version: if you care about cloud lock-in, Microsoft/AWS dominance, or whether the UK regulator actually does anything about it — this is worth a skim. We read the paperwork so you don’t have to slog through slow-moving regulator press releases.