Cloud inquiry chair quits CMA over glacial pace of reform • The Register

The chair of the UK's cloud market inquiry has resigned from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), citing frustration with the regulator's slow progress on implementing recommendations to address the dominance of AWS and Microsoft in Britain's cloud computing market.

Kip Meeks, who served as Inquiry Chair at the CMA since 2018, left his position in late January, a year before his term was scheduled to end. His resignation comes almost two-and-a-half years after the investigation began and a year after the CMA published its report recommending that AWS and Microsoft be designated with strategic market status for cloud computing.

The inquiry found that while the cloud market was functioning well for the two US hyperscalers, customers faced significant challenges. Interoperability issues and Microsoft's licensing policies were identified as major pain points for businesses trying to navigate the cloud computing landscape.

With AWS and Microsoft controlling up to 90 percent of Britain's cloud services market, the CMA's July 2025 report advised designating the pair as having "substantial and entrenched market power" and significant influence over specific digital activities. This designation would subject them to stricter regulatory oversight.

Despite these findings, the industry has yet to see any concrete action from the regulator. Meeks expressed his concerns to The Morning Intelligence, stating: "I shared concerns at the time that the CMA was taking a long time to pick up the recommendations of our report. I'm still concerned that the pace is going slowly."

The CMA's use of AWS hosting services and its decision to increase spending in 2024 has raised questions about potential conflicts of interest. The watchdog also chose early in the investigation to drop a key line of inquiry regarding committed discounts spending, which it potentially benefits from.

Meeks' resignation follows the appointment of Doug Gurr, a former Amazon executive with 16 years at the company, as permanent Chairman of the CMA. This succession of events has led to speculation about the independence of the regulatory body.

Beyond the slow pace of reform, Meeks reportedly expressed concerns about the CMA's structure, suggesting that the independence of the regulator is at risk as it potentially moves from a panel of independent members voting on merger investigations to a committee that includes CMA executives.

For UK customers and smaller cloud providers, the resignation highlights the ongoing frustration with what many see as the CMA's toothless approach to addressing big vendor lock-in and market dominance. Despite the regulator's tough talking, the cloud computing market remains largely unchanged, with businesses still waiting for meaningful action beyond the pro-growth agenda handed down by Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government.

The resignation of Meeks underscores the challenges faced by regulators in keeping pace with rapidly evolving technology markets. As cloud computing continues to be a critical infrastructure for businesses across the UK, the question remains whether the CMA will accelerate its efforts to create a more competitive and customer-friendly market, or whether the dominance of AWS and Microsoft will continue unchallenged.

The cloud computing industry will be watching closely to see if the CMA can overcome its current inertia and implement the recommendations that Meeks and his team worked to develop. For now, the glacial pace of reform has claimed its first high-profile casualty in the form of the inquiry's chair, leaving many to wonder what it will take to spur meaningful change in Britain's cloud computing market.