Microsoft supports many groups lobbying for regulatory action against Google in Europe and US
Microsoft, Once an Antitrust Target, Is Now Google's Regulatory Scold — BRUSSELS — Not long ago, Microsoft was the scourge of European antitrust regulators. — It was fined not once, not twice, not thrice but four times.
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft's pivot from defendant to complainant is the story's spine: a company fined four times by European antitrust regulators now underwrites many of the groups lobbying Brussels and Washington for action against Google. Within months of this report, European firms had organized civil lawsuits targeting Google, keeping the pressure on after Microsoft's own cases set the template.
First-order effects
- Google faces a coordinated lobbying front in both Europe and the US funded partly by its largest software rival, raising the cost of defending its search and services practices on two regulatory fronts at once.
Second-order effects
- The arrangement proved unstable: by December 2015 Microsoft had withdrawn funding from FairSearch, the watchdog behind the pending EU case, leaving advocacy groups to sustain complaints without their anchor backer.
Third-order effects
- The tactic has fully reversed over the decade — Google now files EU complaints alleging unfair Microsoft cloud licensing and accuses Microsoft of running shadow campaigns and astroturf groups with European regulators, showing each firm adopting the other's playbook as their market positions flipped.
The trend: Dominant tech firms cycle between antitrust target and regulatory scold, weaponizing complaints against whichever rival currently holds the advantage.