Google Cloud complains to the European Commission about Microsoft licensing

2024-09-25 · Publisher : Google Cloud · Domain : Cloud & DevOps

Google files an antitrust complaint in Brussels: it says Microsoft's licensing rules penalize customers who want to run Windows Server outside Azure, with markups of up to 400% and up to 1 billion euros a year in Europe.

### What changes On 25 September 2024, Google Cloud announces it has filed a complaint with the European Commission against Microsoft. It denounces licensing practices that make it hard to use **Windows Server** on clouds other than **Azure**, including Google Cloud and AWS. ### Key facts - Markups of up to 400% to run Windows Server on a rival cloud, according to Google. - Cost estimated at 1 billion euros a year for European businesses, based on a 2023 CISPE study cited by Google. - Google dates the problem to 2019 licensing changes and mentions customers' fear of retaliation (audits). - It also cites the July 2024 CrowdStrike incident to illustrate the risks of dependence on a single provider. - Google withdrew its complaint on 28 November 2025, after the Commission opened DMA market investigations into cloud. - According to Google, Microsoft's cloud market share "suddenly" rose after 2019, largely at the expense of European providers (Google's wording). ### Why it matters The complaint shifts the debate from exit fees to software licensing, which determines the real price of a multicloud project. For CIOs running Windows or SQL Server estates, portability of the software licence matters as much as portability of data. Its withdrawal in 2025 shows that the matter was then settled on the DMA front. The complaint should be read as the argument of a direct Microsoft competitor, whose figures (400%, 1 billion euros) are those of Google and CISPE. ### Takeaway A complaint withdrawn a year later, but one that placed Microsoft licensing at the heart of the cloud competition file.

Tags : Licence, Google Cloud, Azure, Multi-cloud, Réglementation