EU companies bring anti-trust complaint against Microsoft for packing OneDrive, Teams with Windows 11

A coalition of EU companies, led by file storage company Nextcloud, has filed a complaint with the EU as well as German antitrust authorities, alleging that Microsoft is abusing its dominant position in the system. operations to expand into unrelated areas like collaboration and the cloud. service.

They assert Microsoft is integrating “Microsoft 365” more deeply into their broader portfolio of software and services, including Windows, noting that Microsoft’s “OneDrive” is privileged to be selected in its operations. Windows whenever Windows users deal with file storage. Another example is Microsoft’s “Teams” which is being successfully marketed as a default part of Windows 11.

They argue that the combination of dominant Windows (operating software) with the OneDrive (cloud) offering makes it nearly impossible for Microsoft to compete with their SaaS offerings. It illustrates anti-competitive practices such as “self-priority” on the basis of Windows’ market dominance.

The effect is that when it comes to cloud storage, over the years Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have increased their share to 66% of the total European market, with local (European) providers down from 26% down 16%.

They argue that behavior like the one described above is at the core of this massive growth of global tech giants in Europe, and is very similar to what happened in the late 1990s when Microsoft combined Internet Explorer with Windows, thereby destroying Netscape.

Frank Karlitschek, CEO and Founder of Nextloud, said:

This is quite similar to what Microsoft did when it killed competition in the browser market, suppressing nearly all browser innovation for more than a decade. Copy the innovators’ product, combine it with your own dominant product and kill their business, then stop innovating. This kind of behavior is bad for consumers, for the market, and of course, for local businesses in the EU. Together with the other members of the union, we are asking European antitrust authorities to enforce a level playing field, to give our customers free choice and to give them a fair chance for life. compete.

NextCloud and their “Coalition for a Level Playground” say these intentional abuses need to be addressed immediately. They are asking for:

• Do not abuse Microsoft’s dominant position in the OS and related markets (for example, by bundling, pre-installing, or taking advantage of additional Microsoft services) while maintaining a level playing field.
• And that Microsoft must support open standards and interoperability. This will give European consumers a free choice among service providers that must compete fairly on their merits.

Microsoft is increasingly being targeted in the European Union, with the company facing yet another challenge from Slack in the EU.

Given that cloud and OS integration is now the norm when it comes to major platforms like Android, iOS, and of course Windows, do our readers think NextCloud has a point or are they stuck in the past? Let us know below.

via ZDNet