Google Withdraws EU Antitrust Complaint Against Microsoft After New Probe launched — Update
By Edith Hancock
Alphabet's Google withdrew a European Union antitrust complaint against Microsoft over its cloud business Azure after EU competition officials opened a probe into the company under new tech rules.
Google said the withdrawal comes after the European Commission opened investigations into whether Microsoft's Azure and Amazon Web Services need to adhere to the Digital Markets Act, legislation governing the digital economy in Europe.
"We filed our antitrust complaint with the European Commission to give voice to our customers and partners about the issue of anticompetitive cloud licensing practices," Giorgia Abeltino, senior director of government affairs at Google Cloud Europe, said Friday. She said the company stands behind its original arguments.
Other parts of the companies' businesses, such as Microsoft's Windows PC operating system and Amazon's e-commerce platform, are already subject to the DMA. Search engines and app stores typically need to cross certain thresholds for turnover and active users to come under the scope of the rules, but user numbers are more difficult to determine for large cloud providers that offer their software through commercial contracts.
The EU regulator said earlier this month that it can still use the DMA to check whether companies act as important gateways between businesses and consumers for services that don't meet usual thresholds.
Microsoft declined to comment.
A spokesperson for the commission said officials take note of the withdrawal. "We will continue to closely [monitor] the cloud sector under antitrust tools with a view to ensuring that all European consumers and businesses can reap the benefits of the development of cloud," the spokesperson said.
Google initially filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft in 2024, saying the company used unfair software licensing practices that made it harder for rivals to compete. That complaint came shortly after Microsoft settled an earlier dispute with cloud industry association Cispe.
Write to Edith Hancock at edith.hancock@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 28, 2025 06:40 ET (11:40 GMT)
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