Google reminds regulators it complained about Microsoft’s cloud practices a year ago – but says nothing has been done

Google Cloud has complained about Microsoft’s unfair licensing practices
Rival cloud providers are forced to charge for licenses, causing vendor lock-in
Little has been done to solve the issue in 12 months, Google Cloud says

Google has published a new blog post reminding the world it filed a formal complaint with the European Commission one year ago over Microsoft’s cloud licensing practices, but that nothing still has been done.

The company argues Microsoft penalizes customers who run Windows Server and other software on rival clouds, like its own Google Cloud (GC) as well as AWS and others.

According to the complaint, Microsoft’s licensing rules make it up to 5x more expensive to move workloads to competitors, essentially resulting in vendor lock-in.

Google isn’t dropping its Microsoft complaint

The problem is Microsoft allows existing on-prem licenses to transfer to Azure, but rivals like Google Cloud require customers to buy new licenses, which adds to the cost.

Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has already deemed that Microsoft’s policies restrict cloud choice, but it has not yes imposed any remedies. America’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also launched its own antitrust investigation in 2023.

GC VP of Government Affairs and Public Policy Marcus Jadotte and GC Europe Senior Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy Giorgia Abeltino noted: “Restrictive cloud licensing has caused an enormous amount of harm to the global economy over the last year.”

Speaking about “the ongoing risk of inaction,” Jadotte and Abeltino accused Microsoft of acquiring customers at “two or even three times the rate” of competitors.

In a bid to strengthen its case and speed up action, the Google Cloud blog claims governments could unlock up to €1.2 trillion in additional EU GDP by the end of the decade, saving up to €450 billion per year in gained productivity.

Microsoft has already settled similar concerns with European cloud providers, with a company spokesperson telling TechRadar Pro: “Microsoft settled amicably similar concerns raised by European cloud providers, 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.”