Microsoft Hits Google With Antitrust Complaint

The war between Microsoft and Google just ratcheted up a notch: In its first-ever antitrust complaint against a competitor, Microsoft asked European regulators today to go after the search giant. Google is stunting competition and attempting to “entrench its dominance” on the Web, Microsoft complained to the European Commission. In a blog post explaining the filing, a Microsoft exec says Google has “engaged in a broadening pattern of walling off access to content and data that competitors need to provide search results to consumers and to attract advertisers.”

Among Microsoft’s examples of Google’s anti-competitive practices: disadvantaging competitors by degrading access to YouTube, manipulating search algorithms to make competing sites rank lower, and using exclusivity agreements to promote its search boxes. The complaint is the latest in a string of increased scrutiny for Google, Politico notes; the Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission, and state attorneys general are all looking closely at the search giant’s practices. (More Google stories.)