Microsoft's Teams Decoupling: EU Approves Commitments

The European Commission accepted commitments from Microsoft to address concerns about competitive practices involving its Teams platform. EU regulators found Microsoft's bundling of Teams with Office restricted competition. In 2023, Microsoft responded by unbundling Teams, aiming to foster fair competition in cloud-based collaboration tools.

The European Commission announced its decision to accept Microsoft's proposed commitments on Friday, aiming to resolve competition concerns related to the company's Teams platform.

An investigation initiated in 2023 by EU regulators had uncovered that Microsoft potentially provided Teams with an unfair advantage in the marketplace.

This was attributed to the bundling of the platform with Microsoft's productivity applications. In a significant move, Microsoft unbundled Teams from Office in 2023 to encourage a more level playing field in the realm of cloud communication and collaboration products.

(With inputs from agencies.)