Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian speaks on the Google Cloud Subsequent match in San Francisco, April 9, 2019.
Michael Brief | Bloomberg | Getty Photographs
Google, which has spent years protecting itself in opposition to claims of monopolistic conduct around the U.S. and Europe, goes public with its personal criticism of anti-competitive practices by way of longtime rival Microsoft.
In a letter to the Federal Industry Fee on Wednesday, Google alleged Microsoft makes use of unfair licensing phrases to “lock in shoppers” to exert regulate over the cloud-computing marketplace.
The letter was once despatched in accordance with a vast FTC request for touch upon doable anti-competitive acts within the cloud business. A spokesperson for the FTC declined to remark additional.
Google singled out Microsoft within the criticism, arguing that thru its dominant Home windows Server and Microsoft Workplaces merchandise, the corporate could make it tough for its large roster of shoppers to make use of anything else however its Azure cloud infrastructure providing. Google described Microsoft’s licensing restrictions as a “complicated internet” that stops companies from diversifying their endeavor device distributors.
Google additionally stated such regulate represents a vital nationwide safety and cybersecurity possibility. It highlighted successive cyberattacks involving Microsoft merchandise, together with the SolarWinds breach. Microsoft and Google each have lively cybersecurity practices that reply to and analysis cyber threats.
Google is not any stranger to antitrust considerations. In January, the U.S. Division of Justice filed its 2d antitrust lawsuit in opposition to Google in simply over two years, focused on its promoting trade.
The dept’s previous lawsuit, filed in October 2020 beneath the Trump management, accused Google of the use of monopoly energy to bring to an end festival for web seek thru exclusionary agreements. That case is anticipated to visit trial in September.
Google additionally faces 3 different antitrust court cases from massive teams of state lawyers common, together with one curious about its promoting trade led by way of Texas Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton.
In its FTC letter, Microsoft additionally alleged Oracle’s practices are damaging to shoppers.
“With overly complicated agreements that search to fasten in shoppers to their ecosystems,” Google stated, corporations akin to Microsoft and Oracle “aren’t handiest forcing shoppers towards a monolithic cloud style but additionally restricting selection, expanding prices for patrons, and disrupting rising and thriving virtual ecosystems within the U.S. and world wide.”
Within the Nineteen Nineties, Microsoft was once inquisitive about one of the infamous antitrust circumstances in U.S. historical past. The corporate was once accused of the use of its dominance in desktop device to push customers to its web browser, killing off festival from upstarts akin to Netscape. The federal government received the case, in the long run forcing Microsoft to permit PC makers to make use of different corporations’ browsers.
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