In December, Microsoft stopped providing funding to FairSearch, a watchdog behind Google antitrust cases, including the one pending in the EU
Mark Bergen / Re/code :
Context & Ripple Effects
Through 2015, Microsoft was the visible patron of the regulatory campaign against Google: April reporting showed it supporting many groups lobbying for action against Google in Europe and the US [[a:828407]], and by August the antitrust settlement Google negotiated with the EU had fallen apart, leaving the case — which FairSearch helped push — still pending.
Re/code's report that Microsoft stopped funding FairSearch in December is therefore a quiet but telling retreat: the company is winding down the proxy-watchdog strategy just as its flagship EU case against Google remains open.
First-order effects
- FairSearch loses its principal corporate backer mid-campaign, leaving the pending EU case dependent on other complainants and on the Commission's own momentum.
- Microsoft's lobbying footprint against Google shrinks immediately, reducing the outside pressure that kept the EU file alive through 2015.
Second-order effects
- Other Google rivals face the choice of filling the funding gap or letting the watchdog route atrophy — and Google gains room to argue the European case was industry-manufactured rather than consumer-driven.
- The move signals to competitors that bankrolled complaints are a cost Microsoft no longer wants to carry, pushing rivalry back toward product and pricing competition.
Third-order effects
- The longer arc runs toward direct rather than delegated attacks: by 2024 Google itself filed an EU complaint alleging unfair Microsoft cloud practices [[a:875873]] — cross-filed antitrust cases becoming a standard competitive weapon between the two.
- That arms race has a natural endpoint visible in the corpus: Google withdrew its Azure-licensing complaint once the EU opened DMA probes into both Azure and AWS [[a:893085]], suggesting regulator-led scrutiny eventually makes mutual détente cheaper than proxy warfare.
The trend: Big-tech rivalry is migrating from funding third-party antitrust watchdogs to filing direct complaints against each other — until regulators' own probes make standing down the rational move.