American tech giants are fighting in the European Union: On Wednesday, Google filed a complaint against Microsoft before the European Commission for its business practices in the cloud computing services it offers to companies. The complaint from the company of the famous Internet search engine, a subsidiary of Alphabet, is that Microsoft prevents its clients, through user license contracts, from changing providers “even though there are no technical barriers to doing so or they impose a surprising 400% surcharge,” the Californian firm explained in a statement released on Wednesday, adding that this situation prevents European companies from “taking full advantage” of the cost reduction that allows companies to work through digital cloud services.
Google cites the investigation it opened this summer into Microsoft for abusing its dominant market position with Teams to illustrate its claim: “For years, in the field of productivity software [computer programs that facilitate business organization], Microsoft has blocked customers from Teams, even when they preferred other providers. Now, the company is applying the same method to push companies to Azure, its cloud platform“. Specifically, the Alphabet subsidiary refers to the file in which the European Commission’s Competition service investigates whether the default installation of Teams in the Office 365 and Microsoft 365 package constitutes a violation of market rules.
