Microsoft is firing back at Google, accusing the search giant of running “shadow campaigns” designed to discredit it with EU regulators and policymakers.

Google has been vocal in its criticism of Microsoft, accusing the company of abusing its dominant position on the desktop to gain an unfair advantage in the cloud. The accusations reached a boiling point with the recent complaint by EU cloud organization CISPE, a complaint that Microsoft worked to address. Unhappy with the result, Google doubled down, accusing Microsoft of manipulating the system.

Rima Alaily, Microsoft’s Deputy General Counsel, has penned a blog post and fired back at Google.

This week an astroturf group organized by Google is launching. It is designed to discredit Microsoft with competition authorities, and policymakers and mislead the public. Google has gone through great lengths to obfuscate its involvement, funding, and control, most notably by recruiting a handful of European cloud providers, to serve as the public face of the new organization. When the group launches, Google, we understand, will likely present itself as a backseat member rather than its leader. It remains to be seen what Google offered smaller companies to join, either in terms of cash or discounts.

Alaily then goes on to call out Google’s hypocritical behavior.

This latest effort comes on the heels of their recent failure to weaponize another organization – CISPE – against Microsoft. In July, when CISPE was on the verge of resolving its complaint against Microsoft, Google offered CISPE’s members a combination of cash and credits amounting to an eye-popping $500 million to reject the settlement and continue pursuing litigation. Wisely, they declined. And, instead, the CISPE members endorsed the resolution we had developed together.

This is something we covered here at WPN. Following Microsoft’s deal with CISPE, Amit Zavery—then Google Cloud VP—minced no words in an X post, accusing Microsoft of paying off CISPE.

MSFT playbook of paying off complainants rather than address their complaints shouldn’t fool anyone. The deal doesn’t apply to all CISPE members. CISPE admits to a payoff. EU cloud competitors become Azure customers. CISPE members under gag order, can’t file complaints anymore.

The accusation is especially interesting, considering that Google offered a $500 million deal, which included $15 million in cash, for CISPE to reject Microsoft’s deal. In other words, Google did the very thing it tried to accuse Microsoft of doing.

Google’s Efforts Smack of Desperation

Alaily goes on to theorize that Google’s smear campaign stems from the intense pressure the organization is facing, for the first time in its existence.

Google’s tactics, unfortunately, go beyond creating astroturf lobbying organizations. They’re also speaking out in their own name in disingenuous ways and putting forward paid commentators to discredit us. Why? I suspect much has to do with the fact that Google is facing a reckoning. Never in the past two decades have Google’s search, digital advertising, and mobile app store monopolies faced such a concerted and determined threat as they do today. By our count, there are at least 24 antitrust investigations against Google in the leading digital markets around the world. At a time when Google should be focused on addressing legitimate questions about its business, it is instead turning its vast resources towards tearing down others. It is disappointing that, with the foundation of their business facing jeopardy, they have sought to bolster their cloud computing service – Google Cloud Platform – by attacking ours.

It seems Google has two ultimate goals in its astroturfing efforts: distract from the intense regulatory scrutiny Google is facing around the world by discrediting Microsoft and tilt the regulatory landscape in favor of its cloud services rather than competing on the merits.

Alaily also points out how Google has used this exact same playbook in its efforts to fight antitrust regulators, something the company was called out for in its recent antitrust court loss.

In Europe and in the U.S., Google has taken a page out of its decades-long playbook for litigating against antitrust enforcers. It is funding – directly and indirectly – various industry commentators and academics to attack Microsoft and author “studies” that can be cited to discredit us. Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter at the United States Department of Justice recently condemned tactics like these as undermining true expertise and antitrust enforcement. Indeed, these commentators often misrepresent their credentials or mask their affiliation with to appear as neutral experts.

Just recently one of these commentators published an op-ed calling for regulatory intervention and echoing Google’s arguments, citing past ties to Microsoft and Google, perhaps to seem impartial. We took note, since we had not worked with the author for many years and had no current relationship. After we raised the issue with the publication, it updated the article to properly disclose the author’s affiliation with a private consulting firm which has counted Google as a client.

Europe is not the only jurisdiction where Google is engaged in these tactics, nor is software licensing for the cloud the only topic Google is using to attack us behind the scenes.

Google Needs to Return to Its Roots

Google was once the darling of the tech industry, but the company today is barely recognizable from its early days. The days when the company’s motto was, “Don’t be evil” are long behind it, and many have become disillusioned with what Google has become.

In recent years, employees and former executives have expressed concern with the company’s decisions and direction.

“There’s no way a few years before, they would have had a secret project with these kinds of ethical concerns,” Raph Levien, a former level 6 Google engineer, said about the company’s secret efforts to create a censored version of its search engine for China. “It crossed the line and felt misleading. It definitely felt like this was Google changing.”

“I didn’t change. Google changed,” said Ross LaJeunesse, the company’s former head of its human rights efforts. “Now when I think about ‘Don’t be evil,’ it’s been relegated to a footnote in the company’s statements.”

While shadow campaigns against competitors may seem like a quick and easy way to divert attention away from what it’s become, eventually, Google’s founders and executives need to take a long look in the mirror and decide they’re willing to do the real work it takes to return Google to what it once was.