Microsoft levelled shocking allegations against Google, accusing the Alphabet-owned company of launching a "shadow campaign" whose aim is to damage Microsoft Azure, a cloud service. Microsoft Deputy General Counsel Rima Alaily pointed out in a blog post that Google was about to launch a lobbying group in Europe to discredit Azure and inappropriately exert influence over regulators. According to Microsoft, Google is motivated in large part by the intensifying competition in the cloud market, as well as its ongoing scrutiny regarding its business practices across the globe. Google has filed its own antitrust complaint against Microsoft in the European Union, which marks a resurgence of some longstanding tensions between the tech conglomerates.
Microsoft’s Allegations Against Google
Microsoft accusations state that Google has formed an "astroturf" lobbying group – kind of a fake grassroots organisation – to tarnish Microsoft’s image. Microsoft has learned about the group's formation from a European cloud provider that was approached to join the campaign but declined. Microsoft contends that this lobbying entity is designed to fake independence, secretly organised, funded, and controlled by Google. According to Alaily, Google's strategy is to use this group as a public-facing organisation to criticise Microsoft cloud services, diverting attention from Google's other mounting legal challenges.