Google accuses Microsoft of monopoly in cloud computing market
Google on Wednesday filed a complaint with the European Commission against a group Microsoft Which accuses it of anti-competitive practices by pushing its customers to use its Azure cloud platform at the expense of competitors.
“This is the only way to end Microsoft’s dominance, give customers choice, and ensure fair terms for competitors in the marketplace,” Amit Zaveri, general manager and vice president of Google Cloud, said at a press conference.
She explained Google “Microsoft’s software licensing terms prevent European organizations from moving their existing workloads from Azure to competing clouds,” the statement said.
According to Google, Microsoft began imposing stricter restrictions on the use of its software starting in 2019, and has put in place several “interoperability barriers.”
The European Commission, the EU’s competition watchdog which has sanctioned Microsoft on several occasions for anti-competitive practices, also opened an investigation in July 2023 into the Redmond group, which is suspected of abusing its dominant position in software to promote the growth of Teams, the video conferencing app, at the expense of competitors.
The move forced the company founded by Bill Gates to announce last year that it was separating Teams from its office software, first in Europe and then worldwide.
But this announcement did not convince Brussels after the European Commission considered in June that these changes “were not sufficient to allay its concerns, and that it was necessary for Microsoft to make further adjustments to restore competition.”
Clash of the tech giants
Google and Microsoft have been at odds for years over antitrust issues.
Last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified against Google in a US federal court, alleging that its business practices had hindered the rise of rival search engines.
Microsoft was also involved in the original EU complaints against Google in the 2000s over its dominance in search, which resulted in large fines for Google.
About a decade ago, companies agreed to a truce, but it turned out to be only temporary.
The European Commission has already opened an investigation into Microsoft’s Teams messaging and video app.
Microsoft tried to allay EU concerns by lifting Teams restrictions in Europe before expanding the policy worldwide in April.
But in June, the Commission suggested the changes did not go far enough, saying Microsoft had breached EU antitrust rules by bundling Teams with its popular Office suite.
Google and other major US tech companies have come under scrutiny from the European Union, where Brussels has been battling with the companies for years over issues ranging from data privacy to misinformation.
Google has been hit with a variety of fines totaling more than €8 billion ($9 billion) over antitrust issues.
But the company won relief earlier this month, when a European Union court overturned a €1.5 billion fine imposed by Brussels on Google for abusing its dominance in online advertising.
