Google accused of shadow campaigns redirecting antitrust scrutiny to Microsoft

On Monday, Microsoft came out guns blazing, posting a blog accusing Google of “dishonestly” funding groups conducting allegedly biased studies to discredit Microsoft and mislead antitrust enforcers and the public.

In the blog, Microsoft lawyer Rima Alaily alleged that an astroturf group called the Open Cloud Coalition will launch this week and will appear to be led by “a handful of European cloud providers.” In actuality, however, those smaller companies were secretly recruited by Google, which allegedly pays them “to serve as the public face” and “obfuscate” Google’s involvement, Microsoft’s blog said. In return, Google likely offered the cloud providers cash or discounts to join, Alaily alleged.

The Open Cloud Coalition is just one part of a “pattern of shadowy campaigns” that Google has funded, both “directly and indirectly,” to muddy the antitrust waters, Alaily alleged. The only other named example that Alaily gives while documenting this supposed pattern is the US-based Coalition for Fair Software Licensing (CFSL), which Alaily said has attacked Microsoft’s cloud computing business in the US, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.

That group is led by Ryan Triplette, who Alaily said is “a well-known lobbyist for Google in Washington, DC, but Google’s affiliation isn’t disclosed publicly by the organization.” An online search confirms Triplette was formerly a lobbyist for Franklin Square Group, which Politico reported represented Google during her time there.

Ars could not immediately reach the CFSL for comment. Google’s spokesperson told Ars that the company has “been a public supporter of CFSL for more than two years” and has “no idea what evidence Microsoft cites that we are the main funder of CFSL.” If Triplette was previously a lobbyist for Google, the spokesperson said, “that’s a weird criticism to make” since it’s likely “everybody in law, policy, etc.,” has “worked for Google, Microsoft, or Amazon at some point, in some capacity.”