Google believes Microsoft's cloud business is trying to keep other companies like itself from fairly competing with some different practices in the European Union. Today, Google announced it has sent a formal complaint to the EU's regulatory agency to see if it can open an investigation into its issues with Microsoft.
Reuters reports that Microsoft was actually using Windows Server as a way to pressure companies to use its Azure cloud services over Google Cloud and another rival, Amazon Web Services.
The story stated:
Google Cloud Vice President Amit Zavery told a briefing that Microsoft made customers pay a 400% mark-up to keep running Windows Server on rival cloud computing operators. This did not apply if they used Azure. Users of rival cloud systems would also get later and more limited security updates, Zavery said.
Zavery also claimed Microsoft's cloud agreements with customers also lock them into using its Teams online chat and collaboration services even if those same customers would prefer to use other collaboration software from different companies. Zavery said that Google wants the European Commission to "really look at this issue, help customers decide and keep the choices going for them."
In July, it was reported that Microsoft had made a deal with the Association of Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers of Europe (CISPE) to settle anti-trust issues with the members of that group. The settlement included a payment of 20 million euros ($21.7 million). It also included an agreement to let those members run a version of Microsoft's Azure Stack HCI software. However, the agreement did not include CISPE member Amazon Web Services, nor did it include Google Cloud.
When reached for comment about Google's formal complaint to the EC, a Microsoft spokesperson sent a statement that said, in part, "Having failed to persuade European companies, we expect Google similarly will fail to persuade the European Commission."
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