Competition Watchdog To Investigate Cloud Storage Providers Following Breach Of Contracts

The UK’s Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) is today launching an official review of compliance with consumer law in the cloud storage market.

The CMA said that the review follows pressure from consumers about the price and changes to service for cloud storage.

Breach

Consumer complaints to the CMA involve practices and terms being in place by providers that breach consumer law, such as customers being lumped with “significant” price hikes along with drastic reductions in cloud storage capacity after contracts had been agreed.

The CMA also said it is aware of incidents where there has been a “loss or deletion” of some consumers’ data.

The CMA told TechWeekEurope: We have heard complaints on subjects including consumers feeling misled about unlimited storage and whether storage is ‘free’, consumers finding that their unlimited storage space has been unexpected and, in some cases, vastly reduced, large price rises and data and/or files going missing after they have been uploaded to a cloud storage account.”

The organisation said that it could issue court proceedings for the Court to order providers who are breaching consumer law to stop and face fines.

Nisha Arora, CMA Senior Director, Consumer, said: “If our review finds breaches of consumer protection laws we will take further action to address these which could include enforcement action using our consumer law powers, seeking voluntary change from the sector or providing guidance to business or consumers.”

Arora also said that the CMA wants to hear from businesses and consumers about their cloud storage experiences, so that they can assess whether or not companies both understand and comply with consumer law.

The review is open for responses until 15 January 2016.

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