Google says Microsoft cloud practices are anti-competitive

1.Google Cloud has accused Microsoft of anti-competitive cloud computing practices.

2. Google Cloud’s Vice President told Reuters the company has raised the issue with antitrust agencies.

3.Microsoft has reportedly offered to change its cloud computing practices in a deal with a few smaller rivals which in turn will suspend their antitrust complaints.

Alphabet’s Google Cloud has accused Microsoft of anti-competitive cloud computing practices and criticised imminent deals with several European cloud vendors, saying these do not solve broader concerns about its licensing terms.

In Google Cloud’s first public comments on Microsoft and its European deals its Vice President Amit Zavery told Reuters the company has raised the issue with antitrust agencies and urged European Union antitrust regulators to take a closer look.

In response, Microsoft referred to a blogpost in May last year where its president Brad Smith said it “has a healthy number two position when it comes to cloud services, with just over 20 percent market share of global cloud services revenues”.

“We are committed to the European Cloud Community and their success,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters on Thursday.

There is intense rivalry between the two US tech giants in the fast-growing, multi-billion-dollar cloud computing business, where Google trails market leader Amazon and Microsoft.

The sector has recently drawn greater regulatory scrutiny, including in the United States and in Britain, because of the dominance of a few players and its increasingly critical role as more and more companies shift their services to the cloud.

Microsoft has offered to change its cloud computing practices in a deal with a few smaller rivals which in turn will suspend their antitrust complaints, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters this week.