Microsoft's EU Antitrust Settlement: Unbundling Teams for Fair Competition

The European Commission has accepted Microsoft's commitments to address competition concerns related to its Teams platform by unbundling it from Office 365. This move follows an EU investigation prompted by complaints from Slack Technologies and alfaview. Microsoft aims to comply swiftly with these new obligations.

The European Commission has officially accepted commitments from Microsoft aimed at resolving competition issues tied to its Teams platform, the executive body announced on Friday.

As part of the agreement, Microsoft will offer versions of Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suites without integrating Teams, accompanied by a reduced price. Microsoft's vice president for European government affairs, Nanna-Louise Linde, expressed gratitude for the dialogue with the Commission leading to this resolution, emphasizing the company's commitment to promptly implementing these new obligations.

The investigation initiated by EU regulators was triggered by a complaint from Slack Technologies, now part of Salesforce Inc, and a similar grievance from German competitor alfaview. Preliminary findings suggested that Microsoft's bundling of Teams with other productivity tools like Word and Excel gave it an unfair advantage in the market for cloud-based communication and collaboration products. While Microsoft unbundled Teams from Office following the probe, regulators deemed the adjustments insufficient. Reuters previously reported that Microsoft was expected to evade an antitrust penalty due to the likely acceptance of its offer by EU regulators regarding Office and Teams.

(With inputs from agencies.)