Google filed a complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission on September 25. The company behind the world’s most used search engine accuses the company behind the world’s most used operating system of anti-competitive practices in the cloud sector.
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Google filed a complaint before the European Commission against Microsoft, which it accuses of anti-competitive practices by pushing its customers to use Azure, its cloud platform to the detriment of competitors. In detail, companies that have Windows Server operating software and want to run it on a dematerialized platform other than Microsoft’s, such as Google Cloud or AWS, Amazon’s cloud, must face exorbitant costs, which can reach a price increase of 400%, and ” a limitation of security patches “, denounced Google, which filed its complaint on Tuesday evening.
According to the American giant, Microsoft began to impose increasingly strict restrictions on the use of its software from 2019, implementing numerous ” interoperability barriers “. ” Microsoft has reached an agreement to address similar concerns raised by European cloud providers, while Google had hoped that the latter would pursue litigation “, reacted the Redmond group, contacted by AFP. ” Having failed to convince European companies, we believe that Google will also fail to convince the European Commission. ” added the spokesperson.
Europe has already condemned Microsoft several times in the past, but the irony of the situation will not have escaped anyone when we know that Google’s anti-competitive practices are also very often singled out. The Californian giant has accumulated 8 billion euros in fines in Brussels.
The two companies have long been at odds over competition. Last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified against Google in a U.S. federal court, saying its business practices had stymied the rise of rival search engines.
Microsoft was also involved in the complaints filed in the 2010s in Europe against Google over its dominance in online search, which resulted in large fines being imposed on Google. About a decade ago, the two companies agreed to a truce, which proved temporary.
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