Google reportedly offered CISPE millions in financial incentives to continue its complaint against Microsoft.

First reported by The Register and citing "confidential documents," Google offered CISPE a "Members Innovation Fund of €4 million ($4.22m) described as €100,000 ($105,495) per member for "immediate funding for projects and license fees of CISPE members to support innovation in open cloud ecosystems."

Google Cloud
– Sebastian Moss

According to The Register report, former VP of Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Amit Zavery gave a presentation to select members of the Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe (CISPE), later presenting to the whole organization.

On top of the Members Innovation Fund, Google offered €10 million to the trade association for "participating and membership resources," as well as €100 million of software credits of Google Distributed Cloud to be spread over five years.

According to The Register and citing CISPE sources, these offerings aimed to convince CISPE to continue its complaint against Microsoft, which was resolved earlier this year.

This is not the first time that reports have emerged that Google had offered financial incentives to CISPE regarding to Microsoft probe. In July 2024, Bloomberg reported - citing similarly confidential documents - that Google had offered CISPE €14 million ($15.3m) in cash and €455m ($497.5m) in software licenses to continue its antitrust probe with the EU into Microsoft.

DCD has reached out to Google for comment on these latest allegations, though The Register's report states that Google denies any offering to CISPE was linked with the Microsoft probe.

Since the CISPE complaint resolution, Google has gone on to join the Open Cloud Coalition (OCC) which was launched in October.

The OCC describes itself as an alliance of leading cloud providers and users that aims to improve competition, transparency, and resilience within the cloud industry.

Microsoft immediately accused Google of conducting "shadow campaigns" regarding the OCC, claiming that Google has recruited European cloud providers to serve as the public face of the organization while Google will present itself as a backseat member rather than its leader, with the ultimate aim to "discredit Microsoft with competition authorities, and policymakers and mislead the public."

In November, the Federal Trade Commission launched its own investigation into Microsoft's business practices.