Google has filed a formal complaint with the European Commission against unfair competition practices that Microsoft has been using for years with its cloud products.

The feud between Google and Microsoft continues. Google has filed a formal antitrust complaint with the European Commission against Microsoft Cloud. According to Google, the big tech giant’s cloud products tie its customers to itself and thus offer other competitors unfair competition.

The antitrust case will take a long time. The back and forth between Google and its rival Microsoft continues. This complaint does not yet indicate that a formal investigation will follow. Google is taking an important step in the long-running antitrust case against Microsoft Cloud

Google remains stubborn

Cloud Infrastructure Providers in Europe (CISPE), a non-profit industry group based in Brussels, previously sat down with Microsoft to discuss how to outcompete other cloud providers with its licensing terms. Microsoft offers a discount on its own software when bundled with Azure cloud services, making it more expensive to run software in rival clouds. Cloud competitors like Google are not happy with this.

Microsoft recently offered CISPE a check for a million to drop a pending complaint. Google responded by offering CISPE half a billion to continue the antitrust case against Microsoft, but to no avail.

Now Google is filing a formal antitrust complaint with the European Commission against Microsoft’s unfair competition practices. This complaint does not yet indicate that a formal investigation will take place, but it is an important step in the case.