Microsoft Accused Of Anti-Competition In Europe For Merging OneDrive With Windows

Microsoft is accused of abusing its dominant position in the industry. (photo: Ed Hardie/Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Dozens of European technology companies have accused Microsoft of abusing its dominant position in the industry by combining first-party services (OneDrive, Office 365, Teams, etc.) with Windows.

German cloud storage company Nextcloud has revealed that it has formally asked the European Union (EU) and German authorities to stop Microsoft's anti-competitive behavior.

Nexcloud also wants to file a complaint in France with The Coalition for a Level Playing Field which has 30 member partners to build a balanced game.

According to Nextcloud, the anti-competitive practices of tech giants including Microsoft, Google and Amazon have allowed Big Tech to capture 66 percent of the total European market share over the years. Meanwhile, local service providers have reduced their share to 16 percent, down from 26 percent.

“This is very similar to what Microsoft did when it killed the competition in the browser market, stopping almost all browser innovation for over a decade. Copy the innovator's product, mix it with your own dominant product and kill their business, then stop innovating,” said Nextcloud CEO and founder Frank Karlitschek.

Citing Techradar, Tuesday, November 30, in addition to Nextcloud, the coalition includes the European DIGITAL SME Alliance, the Document Foundation, Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), and other non-profit organizations.

The Coalition shows that Big Tech's anti-competitive behavior not only kills competition, it also harms consumers and businesses.

“Microsoft is integrating (Microsoft) 365 more deeply into their portfolio of services and software, including Windows. OneDrive is pushed wherever users are dealing with file storage and Teams is a default part of Windows 11. This makes it nearly impossible to compete with their SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) service,” said the coalition.

Meanwhile, Nextcloud also believes that the EU's proposed Digital Markets Act could reign in Microsoft's gatekeeper position to give small players a fair chance to compete in the European market.