Microsoft broke EU antitrust rules bundling Teams in Office
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The news: The EU has accused Microsoft of anti-competitive behaviour for bundling its Teams app with its Office suite, marking the first such antitrust action against the tech giant in over a decade.
The context: The European Commission's list of formal concerns claims that Microsoft's integration of Teams gives it an "undue advantage," harming competitors like Slack and Zoom. Microsoft introduced changes earlier this year to sell some of its product suites without Teams, but EU officials deemed the measures insufficient.
Brussels’ case is the largest non-merger related one since Microsoft's historic showdown over Windows bundling more than 20 years ago and comes as the tech giant also faces regulatory scrutiny of its partnership with OpenAI and of rivals' complaints about allegedly unfair cloud computing licensing agreements.
The numbers: Microsoft has the right to defend itself against the allegations. If the infringement is confirmed, Microsoft faces fines of up to 10% of its annual worldwide turnover.
What they said: “We are concerned that Microsoft may be giving its own communication product Teams an undue advantage over competitors, by tying it to its popular productivity suites for businesses,” Margrethe Vestager, the Commission's executive vice president in charge of competition policy said in a statement. "If confirmed, Microsoft’s conduct would be illegal under our competition rules. Microsoft now has the opportunity to reply to our concerns."
Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a statement the company would “work to find solutions to address the commission’s remaining concerns.”
Sabastian Niles, president of Slack owner Salesforce, which lodged the original complaint against Microsoft, in a statement said the proceedings are “a win for customer choice and an affirmation that Microsoft’s practices with Teams have harmed competition.”
The sources: European Commission statement, Financial Times
