Google files EU antitrust complaint over Microsoft's cloud business

Legal battles between tech giants have become very common nowadays. We have seen that happening between tech giants like Google, Apple, and Microsoft in the past. However, this time, it’s Google and Microsoft, who are face-to-face. Google has reportedly filed a fresh EU antitrust complaint against Microsoft in Brussels alleging unfair cloud computing practices.

Google accuses Microsoft of locking cloud customers to its platform in a fresh EU antitrust complaint

The Mountain View giant has accused Microsoft of locking customers within its Azure cloud services. Google says that this leads to customers being restricted from choosing any other alternatives. The search giant, in its complaint, also mentions that Microsoft is penalizing its customers with steep penalties. That’s reportedly happening every time they try to move away from its platform to other cloud providers.

Adding to that, Google says that Microsoft forces such users to “pay a 400% markup to buy new Windows server licenses.” It further mentions that if a Microsoft user wants to migrate Windows software to Azure cloud, they can do that “essentially for nothing.” The search giant believes this is quite unfair to the other rivals offering cloud services.

Google has been lagging behind Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the global cloud computing battle. The fresh antitrust complaint could be the company’s move to slow down Microsoft in this specific sector. That said, a complaint doesn’t necessarily mean that the matter would land in court. Additionally, it could stretch over a long time, maybe even years.

Microsoft claims to have settled a deal with a group of rival cloud service providers in a related matter

Talking to CNBC today, Amit Zavery, the VP of Google Cloud, said, “We would like the cloud market to remain and become very vibrant and open for all the providers including European vendors, vendors like us, AWS, and others.” That’s not all, Zavery also expects the EU regulators to force Microsoft to lift such restrictions.

Notably, this complaint comes after the Windows giant recently settled a $22 million deal with a group of competing cloud providers to avoid a formal probe by the EU’s antitrust wing. Talking of the same, a Microsoft spokesperson emailed a statement to the news agency.

A part of the email reads “Microsoft settled amicably similar concerns raised by European cloud providers, even after Google hoped they would keep litigating. Having failed to persuade European companies, we expect Google similarly will fail to persuade the European Commission.”

Moreover, the president of Microsoft says that the company has settled all the concerns in the past. It has resulted in bringing more competition in the sector. Only time will tell if we see yet another antitrust battle in court or if it gets resolved behind closed doors.