Google EU complaint: Microsoft is punishing enterprises that use rivals to Azure

Google elaborated on its official reasons for the EU filing in a blog post. 

“For years, in the productivity software space, Microsoft has locked customers into Teams, even when they preferred other providers. Now the company is running the same playbook to push companies to Azure, its cloud platform. Microsoft’s licensing terms restrict European customers from moving their current Microsoft workloads to competitors’ clouds — despite there being no technical barriers to doing so — or impose what Microsoft admits is a striking 400% price markup,” Google said in its blog post, signed by Amit Zavery, the GM/VP for Google Cloud, and Tara Brady, the president of Google Cloud EMEA.

“Microsoft is the only cloud provider to use these tactics, which have significantly harmed European companies and governments. Not only have they cost European businesses at least €1 billion [US$1.11 billion] a year, but also they have led to adverse downstream effects, including waste of tax funds, stifled competition, restrictions on distributors and channel partners, and heightened risk for organizations exposed to Microsoft’s ‘inadequate’ security culture.”