Google complaint filed

WASHINGTON – Microsoft Corp. said it was filing a formal antitrust complaint in Europe against Google Inc., alleging the Internet giant is squelching competition by limiting access to some of its data from YouTube and other services.

The complaint will be filed as part of the European Commission’s ongoing antitrust investigation, launched in November, into whether Google has abused its dominance in Internet search there at the expense of rivals.

Microsoft said it was the first time it had ever filed an antitrust complaint against a rival, another salvo in a bitter, long-running battle between the two technology titans.

Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said European regulators have found that Google has about 95 percent of the search market there and has taken advantage of that dominance “to the detriment of European consumers.”

Google has restricted the ability of Microsoft’s Bing and other search engines to gather data from YouTube needed to properly display search results, Smith said. Google also has blocked smartphones running Microsoft’s Windows software from operating properly with YouTube – problems that iPhones and phones with Google’s Android software do not have, he said.