Google announced Wednesday it had filed a complaint at the European Commission against Microsoft, accusing its rival of "anticompetitive" licensing practices to force customers to use its cloud service.

"We believe this regulatory action is the only way to end Microsoft vendor lock-in and for customers to have a choice and create a level-playing field for competitors," Google Cloud vice president Amit Zavery said at a news conference.

Google said Microsoft had exploited business customers' reliance on "must-have" software products such as Windows Server to compel them to use its Azure cloud platform.

Microsoft has made it cost-prohibitive for customers to use Windows Server or other products on rival services, such as Google Cloud or Amazon's AWS, by marking up the price by 400 percent, Google charged.

"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," Zavery said in a blog co-signed by Google Cloud's Europe region president Tara Brady.

For businesses that use rival cloud platforms despite the cost, "Microsoft introduced additional obstacles over the last few years, such as limiting security patches and creating other interoperability barriers," Google said.

© 2024 AFP