Google Files Official Complaints To The European Union On Microsoft's Anti-Competition Practices In Cloud Computing

Google Cloud loses to compete in the cloud business with Microsoft (photo: x @QPEV_)

JAKARTA Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., has filed an official complaint with the European Commission regarding Microsoft's anti-competitive practices which they claim locked customers into Microsoft's cloud platform Azure. In a complaint filed on Wednesday, September 25, Google accused Microsoft of exploiting market dominance from the Windows Server operating system to limit competition in the growing cloud computing sector.

Google, one of Microsoft's main competitors and Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the cloud computing industry, accused Microsoft of charging customers unfairly who wanted to run Windows Server on a competitor cloud platform. Amit Zavery, Google Cloud's Vice President, said at a press conference that Microsoft forced customers to pay up to 400% more expensive if they used Windows Server on other cloud providers other than Azure. In contrast, this additional cost does not apply to users running Windows Server in Azure.

Zavery also highlighted that Microsoft is delaying providing security updates for customers who do not use Azure, which exacerbates conditions for users of competing cloud platforms.

Google refers to a study conducted by CISPE (Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe) in 2023, which found that European companies and public sector agencies pay up to 1 billion euros (approximately IDR 16.9 trillion) per year in the form of license penalties from Microsoft. This burdens these companies because of the additional cost of continuing to run Microsoft products on non-Azure platforms.

Earlier, in July, Microsoft completed an antitrust deal worth 20 million euros with CISPE regarding the practice of licensing their cloud computing, which succeeded in preventing further investigations by the European Union. However, this settlement does not involve AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or AliCloud, which made the first two major companies object.

A Microsoft spokesperson stated that they had resolved similar concerns raised by other European cloud providers peacefully and added that Google hopes this issue remains in legal action. "After failing to convince European companies, we hope Google will also fail to convince the European Commission," Microsoft said in their official statement.

Google accuses Microsoft of creating "lock-in vendors" by limiting customer choices in using their products, especially Microsoft Teams collaboration apps, although some customers prefer to use alternative products. This, according to Google, is a similar strategy that Microsoft uses for Azure.

Amit Zavery urged European regulators to act immediately. "Time to act is now. Otherwise, the cloud market will be increasingly limited and limiting choice for customers," he said.

According to Google, products such as Windows Server and other Microsoft apps have a market share of more than 70% among European companies. Over the years, Microsoft has allowed its products to run on any hardware such as laptops, but since 2019, when they started focusing on the cloud business, Microsoft imposed increasingly stringent restrictions.

Cloud Market Growth in the European Union The computing business of clouds in Europe continues to grow with a growth rate of around 20% per year. However, the growth potential is still large. A study conducted by McKinsey in April showed that the two-thirds of companies in the European Union still use less than half of their workload in the cloud, opening up great opportunities for cloud providers to take advantage of this growing market.

Google hopes that with intervention from regulators, practices that are considered to limit this competition can be stopped immediately, so that the cloud market in Europe remains competitive and innovative.