Microsoft Accuses Google of Misleading Tactics in Cloud Computing, Urging Antitrust Investigations

In the competitive arena of cloud computing, Amazon and Microsoft have historically dominated the market. However, Google has been steadily increasing its share, leading to heightened competition and emerging conflicts.

Microsoft's initial strategy involved bundling and preferential licensing with its Windows Server operating systems to attract businesses to its Microsoft Azure platform. This approach drew complaints in Europe from several cloud service providers. Microsoft managed to reach settlements with its competitors, notably pacifying the CISPE alliance, which helped avert potential antitrust investigations.

Nevertheless, Google has expressed dissatisfaction with these resolutions. Reports suggest that Google was willing to offer nearly $500 million to the CISPE alliance to prevent a settlement with Microsoft, but the attempt was unsuccessful.

Recently, Microsoft has publicly criticized Google's tactics, accusing it of misleading the public and disparaging Microsoft to regulators and policymakers to spur continued investigations into Microsoft's practices.

Google has taken steps including the formation of the Open Cloud Alliance in the UK and EU to lobby against Microsoft. Despite being led and funded by Google, the alliance's recruitment documents reportedly omit any mention of Google's involvement or the initiative's true objectives.

Microsoft also alleges that Google is lobbying global market regulators either directly or through intermediaries to impose restrictions on major competitors like Microsoft and Amazon AWS. Additionally, Google is said to be urging regulators not to classify Google's GCP cloud service as a major cloud provider to evade regulatory scrutiny.

Finally, Microsoft also mentioned that Google directly or indirectly funded various industry commentators and scholars to attack Microsoft and wrote "research reports" that could be used to discredit Microsoft in antitrust cases.

Microsoft said that at least 24 antitrust investigations against Google are ongoing around the world. Although Microsoft directly contacted Google executives about the malicious attacks, the matter was not resolved. Microsoft believes that Google should focus on solving its own monopoly problems instead of investing resources in attacking competitors.