Microsoft accuses Google of secretly funding regulatory astroturf campaign

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

accuses

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

of secretly funding regulatory astroturf campaign

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

is accusing

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

of funding a proxy campaign designed to discredit it in the eyes of regulatory authorities and policymakers in the ********* Union and beyond. In a

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

penned by Rima Alaily, the company’s deputy general counsel,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

claims the search giant has gone to “great lengths to obfuscate its involvement, funding and control” of the Open Cloud Coalition, a group of “cloud service providers, industry leaders and stakeholders” that says it’s committed to advocating for a “fair, competitive, and open cloud services industry across the *** and EU.”

According to

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

hired a lobbying agency in Europe to create and operate the organization, and recruited “a handful of” ********* cloud providers to appear as the public face of the soon-to-launch campaign. The company says that

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

plans to “present itself as a ********* member” of the Open Cloud Coalition, rather than its leader and primary funder. As one example,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

points to a

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

that makes no mention of the group’s claimed affiliation to

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. It also notes the involvement of Nicky Steward, who co-wrote a complaint against

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

and

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Web Services as part of the ***’s ongoing antitrust investigation into the cloud services market.

“It ******** to be seen what

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

offered smaller companies to join, either in terms of cash or discounts,”

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

says. It adds that one of the cloud providers

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

approached about joining the Open Cloud Coalition claims that the company will direct the group to ******* “

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

’s cloud computing business in the ********* Union and the ******* Kingdom.”

Engadget was unable to independently verify

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

’s claims.

“We’ve been very public about our concerns with

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

’s cloud licensing. We and many others believe that

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

’s anticompetitive practices lock-in customers and create negative downstream effects that impact cybersecurity, innovation, and choice,” a

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

spokesperson told Engadget, and pointed us to

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

on the matter.

As for why

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

would potentially go to the extraordinary lengths of funding an astroturf campaign,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

points to the recent uptick in regulatory scrutiny of the company’s search, advertising and mobile app store businesses. By

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

’s count,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

faces at least 24 antitrust investigations globally, including a Department of Justice probe that could see the potential break up of the company.

“Never in the past two decades have

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

’s search, digital advertising, and mobile app store monopolies faced such a concerted and determined threat as they do today.” Alaily writes. “At a time when

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

should be focused on addressing legitimate questions about its business, it is instead turning its vast resources towards tearing down others. It is disappointing that, with the foundation of their business facing jeopardy, they have sought to bolster their cloud computing service –

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Cloud Platform – by attacking ours.”

The accusations come after

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

had reportedly attempted to derail an antitrust settlement

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

had negotiated with the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE). In July, Bloomberg

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

that

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

had offered the group €470 million to go forward with litigation against its rival, an overture CISPE

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

As revenue growth from digital ads has slowed for

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

in recent years, the company has increasingly turned to the cloud market to pick up the slack. In 2023,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

’s cloud business broke even for the first time. More recently, the unit generated a $900 million profit in the first quarter of this year.

If you buy something through a link in this article, we may earn commission.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#accuses #

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#secretly #funding #regulatory #astroturf #campaign

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up