* Microsoft's ( MSFT ) cloud licensing looked at in wider CMA

probeCMA aims for strategic market status to intervene licensing

* Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Amazon ( AMZN ) takes steps to address cloud

concerns

(Adds further details throughout, CMA quotes in paragraphs 8-9,

response from Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Amazon ( AMZN ) in paragraphs 10-12)

By Paul Sandle

LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) - Britain's competition

regulator said on Tuesday it would again investigate Microsoft's ( MSFT )

software-licensing practices in the cloud market as part of a

broader probe, months after declining to act on earlier

findings.

Last year a Competition and Markets Authority inquiry group

found the dominance of Amazon ( AMZN ) and Microsoft ( MSFT )

was harming competition in cloud computing, with the latter

singled out for its licensing practices.

It said Microsoft ( MSFT ) was using its power in enterprise

software, such as Windows Server and Microsoft ( MSFT ) 365, to limit

competition by charging licensing fees when its services were

used on rival platforms.

PRAGMATIC ACTION

Antitrust authorities in the European Union and the United

States are also investigating the cloud computing market.

The CMA said on Tuesday that Amazon ( AMZN ) and Microsoft ( MSFT ) were

taking "material steps" to lower some of their fees in the cloud

market following its previous investigation.

The two companies have around 30-40% shares in cloud

services such as processing, storage and networking. Google is

the third main provider, with a smaller share of 5-10%.

The CMA said its new investigation into Microsoft's ( MSFT ) business

software ecosystem would allow it to assign the company with

"strategic market status" in business software, which would

allow it to make targeted interventions in software licensing.

CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said the regulator was

acting in a "flexible, pragmatic way to deliver real impact, as

quickly as possible for UK customers".

"Cloud remains central to our approach - we've seen real

progress through our engagement with Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Amazon ( AMZN ) to

drive meaningful improvements on egress fees and

interoperability and we expect more action from them over the

coming months," she said.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) said the changes it had agreed with the CMA were

focused on charges for moving data, switching, and

interoperability.

"The changes address the CMA's commitment to ensuring that

UK customers can continue to move, deploy, and operate their

workloads in the clouds of their choice with confidence,

flexibility, and ever reduced friction," vice chairman and

president Brad Smith said in a statement.

Amazon ( AMZN ) said the steps it had taken - around multicloud

adoption, data portability and switching - formalised its

commitment to customer choice.