Google withdraws an earlier complaint about Microsoft’s anticompetitive behavior. The European Commission will investigate the case independently, which suffices for the company.
Google announced late last week that it is dropping its antitrust complaint against Microsoft in the EU. This decision comes after the European Commission launched its own investigation into potential anticompetitive behavior by Microsoft. With this, Google has achieved its goal.
Licenses
The core of the complaint concerns the licensing mechanism for Windows Server. The license terms for using this version of Windows are not the same on Microsoft Azure as with other cloud providers. Google believes Microsoft favors its own cloud, making it more expensive to run Windows Server on Google Cloud Platform.
The practice may be malicious if it appears that Microsoft is abusing its competitive position to grant itself an unfair advantage. Google claims that it can be up to five times more expensive to choose Google Cloud over Azure when it comes to Windows Server. An investigation is already underway in the US, and the relevant authority in the UK has determined that the rules indeed restricted competition.
The European cloud providers’ association (CISPE) raised similar concerns in 2022. However, in 2024, CISPE and Microsoft reached an agreement, combining several concessions with a substantial check. Google saw this as buying off the case.
DMA Investigation
The EU is now investigating the licensing mechanism in the broader context of Microsoft’s market position. Google Cloud itself and AWS are also subject to investigation. The EU wants to determine if the cloud providers fall under the DMA as so-called gatekeepers. This status, which designates dominant platform players, comes with additional restrictions on bundling, which could include Microsoft’s licensing mechanism for Windows Server.