Tech giants have been pointing fingers at one another for months when it comes to the cloud computing industry, with Google, Microsoft, and Amazon (AWS), the three dominant players in the market, taking criticism from each other.
Now, Google has filed a complaint with the European Commission accusing Microsoft of using licensing terms to restrict European customers from switching cloud providers, despite there being no technical barriers to do so, or impose a 400% price markup.
It claims this has cost European businesses at least $1 billion a year, as well as stifling competition and innovation by preventing companies from using multiple cloud platforms.
‘Lock-in’ tactics
Microsoft’s terms force users to ‘lock-in’ to its service, which also weakens security, Google insists, since a lack of diversity in providers means cyber attacks are more frequent. The complaint points to the recent outage as an example of vulnerability when one firm has control of a large portion of the market.
In the UK, regulators found that Microsoft acquired up to 70% of all new cloud customers in 2022, and raised concerns about technical limitations and fees which make switching providers difficult.
“Like many others, we have attempted to engage directly with Microsoft.” Google’s statement said. “We have kicked off an industry dialogue on fair and open cloud licensing. And we have advocated on behalf of European customers and partners who fear retaliation in the form of audits or worse if they speak up.”
Just months ago, Microsoft came to an agreement with the Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe (CISPE), reportedly agreeing to a €20 million settlement to resolve an antitrust complaint in regards to its cloud computing licensing practices.
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