Microsoft Offers Concessions to EU Amid Teams Antitrust Probe
Microsoft aims to resolve EU antitrust concerns with major Teams concessions.
Key Takeaways:
- Microsoft has proposed changes to address EU concerns about bundling Teams with Office 365.
- The move follows a formal antitrust investigation triggered by Slack’s 2020 complaint.
- The European Commission is seeking public feedback on Microsoft’s commitments before making a decision.
Microsoft has proposed a set of commitments to the European Commission aimed at resolving concerns over the bundling of Teams in its Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites. These commitments are now open for public feedback as part of the Commission’s ongoing competition investigation.
Slack’s 2020 complaint sparked regulatory action
In 2020, Slack filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission, when Teams saw massive growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The company called out Microsoft for abusing its market dominance to extinguish competition with a “weak, copycat product.”
In July 2023, the European Commission launched a formal antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s bundling of Teams with its Office productivity suite. In response, Microsoft announced in August that it would unbundle Teams from its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 commercial plans in Europe. The company also plans to make it easier for developers to integrate their apps with Teams and to provide better access to the Microsoft 365 ecosystem through Office web apps.
Microsoft pledges long-term changes to Teams to address EU antitrust concerns
However, these efforts were probably not enough for Microsoft to appease European Commission antitrust regulators. “The Commission preliminarily found that these changes were insufficient to address its concerns and that more changes to Microsoft’s conduct were necessary to restore competition effectively,” the EC said today.
In response, Microsoft is prepared to offer additional concessions to address the European Commission’s concerns. The proposal includes offering versions of Office 365 and Microsoft 365 without Teams at a reduced price. The company will also allow customers to buy the suites without Microsoft Teams, even if they already have existing contracts.
Lastly, Microsoft will provide competitors increased interoperability with other Microsoft products. Moreover, the company will allow customers to export their data from Microsoft Teams to competing products.
“The Commission takes note that Microsoft has decided that, if the commitments are made binding, it will align its worldwide suites offers and pricing with the commitments. The commitments offered by Microsoft would remain in force for seven years, except for interoperability and data portability obligations which would remain in force for ten years,” the EC added.
The European Commission is inviting stakeholders to provide feedback on the proposed commitments. Interested parties can submit their comments through the EC’s competition website. A summary of the commitments will be published in the EU’s Official Journal, with a one-month window for submitting feedback.
Rabia has a master's degree in Software Engineering and she has years of experience writing professionally about Microsoft products and other technologies. Rabia has also written for OnMSFT.com as well as Windows Report. She is always up to date on t...
