Legal Trouble For Google In Europe: Courtesy Microsoft

Microsoft has long enjoyed monopoly in the desktop market. Small players were crushed as if they never existed -- Netscape, is an example. But time has changed. Now there are many 800 pound gorillas in the market, including Google and Oracle -- both embrace Linux and Muktware (Open source), which is to Microsoft the hardest nut to crack and break. 
 
If we try to read between the lines it appears as if Microsoft is trying to create trouble for Google in Europe. European Union has received complaints from three companies: a UK price comparison site, Foundem, a French legal search engine called ejustice.fr, and Microsoft's Ciao! from Bing. 
 
Google's Julia Holtz, Senior Competition Counsel, wrote in an official blog, "While we will be providing feedback and additional information on these complaints, we are confident that our business operates in the interests of users and partners, as well as in line with European competition law."
 
The companies who filed case against Google has direct Microsoft link. Microsoft is getting a bit ambitious with its Bing post Yahoo! deal. Thus the company might be trying to shake Google in other markets. So, what has Google to say?
 
Holtz writes, "search. Foundem - a member of an organisation called ICOMP which is funded partly by Microsoft - argues that our algorithms demote their site in our results because they are a vertical search engine and so a direct competitor to Google. ejustice.fr's complaint seems to echo these concerns."
 
Regarding Ciao! were a long-time AdSense partner of Google's, with whom Google said to always had a good relationship. Trouble started when Microsoft acquired Ciao! in 2008. Post acquisition, the love relationship turned into hate and Google started getting complaints about their standard terms and conditions. Microsoft owned Ciao! took their case to the German competition authority, but it now has been transferred to Brussels.
 
"Though each case raises slightly different issues, the question they ultimately pose is whether Google is doing anything to choke off competition or hurt our users and partners. This is not the case. We always try to listen carefully if someone has a real concern and we work hard to put our users' interests first and to compete fair and square in the market. We believe our business practices reflect those commitments," wrote Holtz.
 
It is interesting to see Microsoft is now fighting for the same reasons it has supposedly dominated the tech segment. The company which once called Linux a cancer; which killed Netscape and many such competitors; forcefully brought OOXML format; and has been ignoring all CSS standards is now looking for healthy competition.
 
Everything is fair in love and war.