Alphabet‘s Google formally filed a grievance to the US Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday saying Microsoft used its dominant place in enterprise software program to push clients in direction of its cloud providers, The Data reported on Wednesday.
Microsoft used the licensing phrases in its Office 365 productiveness software program to lock clients into separate contracts with its Azure cloud server enterprise, Google’s grievance mentioned, in line with the report.
There may be intense rivalry between the 2 US tech giants within the fast-growing, multi-billion-dollar cloud computing enterprise, the place Google trails market leaders Amazon.com and Microsoft.
The sector has lately drawn better regulatory scrutiny, together with in the US and in Britain, due to the dominance of some gamers and its more and more vital function as increasingly corporations shift their providers to the cloud.
In March, Google Cloud had accused Microsoft of anti-competitive cloud computing practices and criticized imminent offers with a number of European cloud distributors, saying these don’t remedy broader considerations about its licensing phrases.
Earlier this yr, the FTC had mentioned it’s in search of info from the general public on the enterprise practices of cloud computing corporations, together with particulars on their market energy, competitors and potential safety points.
Google and Microsoft didn’t instantly reply to Reuters’ requests for remark, whereas the FTC declined to remark.
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