The Federal Trade Commission has been criticized by technology trade groups and Alphabet's Google for allegedly unfair cloud business practices, including by the industry's No. 2 by Microsoft's market share.
The U.S. agency asked for information in March about security issues and competition in the lucrative market for data storage and computing power in the so-called cloud. The comments, due on Wednesday, are a response.
They also follow global scrutiny, including a recent investigation into Microsoft's licensing agreements that allegedly discouraged rival cloud use by the European antitrust authority. The data removal fees charged by various providers' clouds have also been criticized by the industry.
Trade group NetChoice criticized Microsoft and Oracle in one of the public comments on Tuesday.
NetChoice, whose members include market leader Amazon.com, Meta Platforms, Google, and other smaller tech players, stated, "Despite vibrant competition in the cloud industry, a few vendors use anticompetitive practices in order to entrench their position, most often by preventing customers from switching providers in search of lower costs, stronger service offerings, and more innovative solutions for their businesses."
“Licensing terms enforced by Microsoft, Oracle, and other legacy on-premises software providers distort competition in the cloud,” Google stated in its own filing.
In keeping with previous statements, Google stated that businesses that purchased software from Microsoft for their own data centers face restrictions and surcharges when migrating those licenses to Microsoft's top cloud competitors. Similar criticism has been leveled by Amazon.
Reuters inquired for clarification, but neither Microsoft nor Oracle responded immediately. In response to the criticism, Microsoft has changed some terms and said, for example, that it is committed to the success of the cloud community as a whole. However, competitors have said that Microsoft's changes are insufficient.
The FTC did not respond. Google's filing was previously reported by The Information.