Google accuses Microsoft of anti-competitive tactics in EU cloud market

Google has accused Microsoft of using anti-competitive legacy licensing practices to lock European customers into its cloud platform.

In a complaint to the European Commission on Wednesday, the Alphabet company claimed that Microsoft is "running the same playbook" with its cloud offering Azure as it does with its Teams collaboration software, creating barriers to prevent customers switching to other providers.

"Microsoft’s licensing terms restrict European customers from moving their current Microsoft workloads to competitors’ clouds – despite there being no technical barriers to doing so – or impose what Microsoft admits is a striking 400% price markup," Google Cloud said in a statement.

The company claims that Microsoft's tactics have "significantly harmed" companies and governments across Europe, citing a study showing a €1bn negative impact to European businesses in 2022.

Google said it has attempted to "engage" with Microsoft over fair and open cloud licensing, but Microsoft instead moved to pay a settlement with other cloud providers over the summer to withdraw an antitrust complaint.

"To give voice to the complaints we hear from customers – and from across the industry – and to seek a resolution that will benefit everyone, we are now taking the next step of filing a formal complaint with the European Commission."