Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOGL.US) files lawsuit against the European Union, accusing Microsoft Corporation (MSFT.US) of engaging in anti-competitive behavior in the cloud computing market.

Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOGL.US) has filed an antitrust lawsuit against the European Commission, accusing Microsoft Corporation (MSFT.US) of unfair licensing practices in its Azure cloud computing services. The lawsuit alleges that Microsoft Corporation's Azure licenses make it harder for customers to migrate to other competing services, such as Alphabet Inc. Class C's cloud. This lawsuit marks the latest counterattack by Alphabet Inc. Class C against Microsoft Corporation's licensing practices. In July of this year, it was reported that the company offered a deal worth around 470 million euros (5.12 billion USD) to a group of European cloud computing companies to prevent an antitrust settlement with Microsoft Corporation. It is reported that the agreement reached between the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) and Microsoft Corporation addressed issues related to unfair software licensing practices involving cloud infrastructure providers and their customers. This agreement relieved Microsoft Corporation from fines and further European Commission investigation. Microsoft Corporation has stated that it expects the antitrust lawsuit filed by Alphabet Inc. Class C with the European Commission to fail, and noted that it has reached a similar settlement with CISPE.