Google urges EU to act on Microsoft practices

Alphabet’s Google Cloud has accused Microsoft of anticompetitive cloud computing practices and criticised imminent deals with European cloud vendors, saying these do not solve broader concern about its licensing terms.

Google Cloud vice-president Amit Zavery urged EU antitrust regulators to take a closer look at the issue.

Google Cloud’s first public comments on Microsoft and its EU deals underscore the rivalry between the two US tech giants in the multibillion-dollar cloudcomputing business where Google trails market-leader Amazon and second-ranked Microsoft.

“Microsoft definitely has a very anticompetitive posture in cloud. They are leveraging a lot of their dominance in the onpremise business as well as Office 365 and Windows to tie Azure and the rest of cloud services and make it hard for customers to have a choice,” Zavery told Reuters in an interview late on Wednesday.

“When we talk to a lot of our customers, they find a lot of these bundling practices, as well as the way they create pricing and licensing restrictions, make it difficult for them to choose other providers,” he said.

He criticised Microsoft deals with smaller European cloud vendors.

Microsoft has offered to change its cloud computing practices in a deal with smaller rivals, which will suspend their antitrust complaints, an informed source told Reuters this week. The move will stave off an EU investigation.