Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced it is waiving fees associated with data transfer out to the internet (DTO) from the AWS cloud. This cost reduction effort follows Google Cloud’s similar data transfer waiver, leaving Microsoft as the sole cloud hyperscaler yet to address what regulators call an anticompetitive business strategy.

In a recent examination of the UK’s cloud infrastructure market, communications regulator Ofcom determined that impressive profit margins for AWS and Microsoft show “there are limits to the overall level of competition,” according to the regulator.

The investigation found that egress fees, or charges paid by customers to move their data out of the cloud, are significantly higher with hyperscalers than at smaller cloud providers. These high costs discourage hyperscale customers from adopting a multicloud model and ultimately work to prevent customers from switching to a different cloud provider altogether.

Hyperscale customers also tend to experience technical barriers to both interoperability and portability. That means customers must reconfigure their applications and data for compatibility with different cloud environments. “This makes it more difficult to combine different services across cloud providers or to change provider,” regulators said.

AWS’ DTO waiver addresses those concerns and affirms the hyperscaler’s support of customer choice, “including the choice to move your data out of AWS,” AWS’ Sebastien Stormacq said. “We believe this choice must include the one to migrate your data to another cloud provider or on-premises,” he wrote in a blog detailing the decision.

The waiver was also driven by the guidelines of the European Data Act, according to Stormacq. This deal is available to all AWS customers in any AWS region at 100 GB of free DTO per month.

AWS customers looking to take advantage of this waiver can request DTO credits from AWS Customer Support, though AWS “sincerely hope[s] you will not,” Stormacq said.

All requests will be reviewed at the AWS account level, and credits will be provided once approved. Applying for free DTO multiple times, however, may place the requests under additional scrutiny.

If approved, the account can stay open, and migrating out of AWS doesn’t have to mean a burned bridge. “You’re welcome back at any time,” Stormacq said.