The European Union accused Microsoft of violating competition rules on Tuesday. officially Statement of objections The bloc said it suspects the software giant is abusing antitrust rules by bundling its real-time communications and collaboration tool, Teams, with popular productivity apps, including its cloud-based enterprise suites Office 365 and Microsoft 365.
The European Union opened an antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s bundling of Teams just under a year ago, in July 2023 — two years after a complaint by Teams competitor Slack.
Microsoft followed up on the scrutiny by announcing a partial dismantling of Teams in late August of last year. However, in announcing the results of its initial investigation on Tuesday, the European Commission said it suspected that the changes Microsoft made to its Teams distribution last year were not enough to address its concerns, and the tech giant needed to move on.
“The Commission is concerned that Microsoft has remained restricted since at least April 2019 difference With its core SaaS productivity applications, thus restricting competition in the communications and collaboration products market and defending its market position “Productivity software and its suite-centric model are competing suppliers of individual software,” the commission wrote in a press release.
The EU suspects Microsoft’s bundles gave Teams a “distribution advantage” over competing products, such as Slack. The Commission’s preliminary view is also that this may have been further exacerbated by interoperability limitations between Teams’ competitors and Microsoft’s offerings. “This behavior may have prevented teams‘ She adds that competitors are competing, and therefore innovating, at the expense of customers in the EEA.
A formal finding of a violation of EU competition rules could result in Microsoft being fined up to 10% of its annual worldwide sales. The bloc can also impose remedies if it decides that steps are required to restore competition.
Microsoft has been contacted for comment.
The statement of objections opens a new phase in the investigation, as Microsoft will be invited to respond to the European Union’s preliminary findings so that the final outcome cannot be predicted. There is also no set timeline for EU law enforcement officials to complete their investigation.
The Commission’s press release notes that it received a second complaint about Teams, filed by a German company called alfaview GmbH, which it said raised “similar concerns regarding the distribution of Teams.” The proceedings now opened against Microsoft will look into complaints from both Slack and AlphaView.