Google complains to the European Union's antitrust authority about Microsoft's cloud tactics

LONDON (AP) — Google escalated its dispute with Microsoft over cloud computing on Wednesday with an antitrust complaint from the European Union, accusing the technology rival of anti-competitive practices.

In a blog post, Google claimed that Microsoft's licensing practices would tie business customers to using the Azure cloud computing platform.

Microsoft is the only cloud provider that uses such tactics, which hinders competition, increases costs for companies and exposes them to greater security risks.

Google, which competes with Microsoft with its Google Cloud services, said it had filed a formal complaint with the European Commission, the executive and top antitrust authority of the 27-nation bloc.

Microsoft said it had already settled similar complaints from European cloud providers amicably, “although Google had hoped that the providers would continue to litigate.”

These providers, part of the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe trade group, said in July they had withdrawn their own complaint after signing a contract with Microsoft.

“After Google failed to convince European companies, we expect Google will also fail to convince the European Commission,” Microsoft said in a prepared statement.

A Commission spokesman said they had received the complaint and would examine it “in accordance with our standard procedures”.

Google said Microsoft changed its licensing terms in 2019 to impose “extreme financial penalties” on companies that want to use Windows Server software on competing services such as Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services, even though there are no technical barriers to switching services.

Tying users to a single technology platform poses increased security risks, Google said, citing a global technology outage in July caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike that resulted in flight cancellations and bank and hospital systems going offline.