Google files antitrust complaint against Microsoft with the EU Commission

Google Cloud Platform has filed a complaint with the European Commission alleging that Microsoft's software licensing policies are anti-competitive. The complaint specifically targets Microsoft's pricing practices for Windows Server, which Google claims are discriminatory against customers running the operating system in non-Azure clouds.

Google argues that Microsoft's dominance with Windows Server, which holds over 70% of the market, is being leveraged to force customers into choosing Azure. The complaint points to Microsoft's 2019 changes to its Bring Your Own License (BYOL) policy, which Google claims have resulted in significant overcharges for customers running Microsoft software on non-Azure clouds.

According to research by Frédéric Jenny, emeritus professor at ESSEC Paris Business, European businesses and public sector organizations may be paying up to €1 billion annually in additional licensing costs to run Microsoft products on competing cloud platforms. These costs include licensing surcharges for SQL Server and first-year repurchase costs that amounted to €560 million for the European market. Jenny’s report, commissioned by the AWS-backed trade group CISPE, also formed the basis of a previous antitrust complaint against Microsoft, filed by European cloud providers in 2022.

In the complaint, Google notes that Microsoft's pricing practices can result in customers paying up to four times more to run Windows Server in non-Azure clouds compared to Azure. This, Google argues, creates an unfair advantage for Microsoft and limits customer choice.

According to the McKinsey research, cloud adoption is still low and Microsoft’s tactics could see the company dominate the cloud market as it has on-premise software. “There's a huge amount of workloads still running on premise (Windows), which will move to the cloud,” said Amit Zavery, Vice President and head of Google Cloud Platform. “When customers decide, they need to be able to have a choice of where they want to move to and they should be able to pick any cloud provider which makes sense for them, technically and commercially.”

Microsoft’s Response

A Microsoft spokesperson has downplayed the complaint referencing the company’s settlement of a similar concern with European cloud providers. “Microsoft settled amicably, even after Google hoped they would keep litigating. Having failed to persuade European companies, we expect Google similarly will fail to persuade the European Commission,” the spokesperson said.