Microsoft announced recently, in a fairly ironic turn of events, that it will file a complaint against Google with the European Commission, the antitrust regulators of Europe. Brad Smith, Microsoft general counsel, wrote in a blog about this action explaining that Microsoft, who themselves have been probed for several antitrust lawsuits in the United States and other countries, will argue that Google is now indulging in behavior that is anticompetitive in the fields of online advertising, search and smartphone software.
In a statement to the media, Smith said that while Microsoft lauded the advancements made by Google in its commendable mission of organizing all the information of the world, however, the company is concerned by the pattern of its conduct which is broadening quickly and which includes practices such as access to data and content being walled off which effectively stops anyone else from developing a competitive alternative. Google responded to this move by Microsoft by saying that they weren’t surprised by it. The company said that they have continued to hold talks with the European Commission on the matter and they were happy to clarify their positioning by explaining the working of their services.
It was pointed out by Smith from Microsoft that the market share of search and search advertising that Google had in Europe was even higher than that in the United States, more than 95%. Microsoft on the other hand fades in comparison, accounting for only 25% of the total searches on the internet in the US through its own search engine called Bing and also its partnership with Yahoo. However, the company argues that Google is increasingly walling off content and information on the internet which blocks off its competitors from providing relevant search results to their users and also attracting advertisers.
