European Union regulators have approved Microsoft’s proposed modifications to its Teams application, effectively concluding a long-standing antitrust investigation related to the platform. The European Commission announced that the commitments Microsoft made to separate Teams from its Office software suite sufficiently addressed competition concerns.
The company’s legally binding commitments, which will be in place for up to ten years, enable Microsoft to avert potential fines that could have resulted from the investigation. Nanna-Louise Linde, Microsoft’s vice president of European government affairs, expressed gratitude for the collaborative efforts that led to this resolution and emphasized the company’s commitment to swiftly implement the new requirements.
The investigation was initiated following a complaint from Slack Technologies, which accused Microsoft of anti-competitive practices by bundling Teams with its widely used Office business software, including applications like Word, Excel, and Outlook. Slack, now part of Salesforce, is known for its popular workplace messaging tools.
In response to the allegations, Microsoft proposed several changes, including offering Office 365 and Microsoft 365 packages at discounted rates without Teams and allowing customers to transition to Teams-free packages. Additionally, the company committed to enhancing interoperability between Teams and competing software, as well as facilitating data migration to rival products.
Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s executive vice-president in charge of competition affairs, stated that this decision promotes competition in the marketplace and guarantees that businesses can select the communication and collaboration tools that best meet their needs.
This announcement follows a recent fine by the Commission, which penalized Google nearly €3 billion (approximately $3.5 billion) for violating competition regulations in its ad-tech operations, a move that drew sharp rhetoric from former President Donald Trump regarding potential retaliation.
