Microsoft charged with EU antitrust violations for bundling Teams

EU regulators person charged Microsoft with illegally bundling its Teams chat app with its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 subscriptions. It’s the archetypal clip Microsoft has been charged with antitrust violations successful the EU for 15 years, pursuing 2 large cases related to Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer bundling.

“The European Commission has informed Microsoft of its preliminary presumption that Microsoft has breached EU antitrust rules by tying its connection and collaboration merchandise Teams to its fashionable productivity applications included successful its suites for businesses Office 365 and Microsoft 365,” says the European Commission successful a statement today.

Microsoft has present been handed a connection of objections, a database of the EU’s concerns implicit its Teams bundling. The bundle elephantine unbundled Teams from Office successful Europe past twelvemonth successful an effort to code regulator concerns, and past spun disconnected Teams from Office 365 arsenic its ain abstracted app globally. The unbundling hasn’t been capable to forestall charges, though.

“We are acrophobic that Microsoft whitethorn beryllium giving its ain connection merchandise Teams an undue vantage implicit competitors, by tying it to its fashionable productivity suites for businesses,” says Margrethe Vestager, the caput of contention argumentation successful Europe. “If confirmed, Microsoft’s behaviour would beryllium amerciable nether our contention rules. Microsoft present has the accidental to reply to our concerns.”

Microsoft says it is moving with the EU to find solutions. “Having unbundled Teams and taken archetypal interoperability steps, we admit the further clarity provided contiguous and volition enactment to find solutions to code the Commission’s remaining concerns,” says Microsoft president Brad Smith successful a connection to the Financial Times.

EU lawmakers first opened a Microsoft antitrust probe into Teams bundling past year, pursuing an anti-competitive ailment filed by Slack successful July 2020. Slack’s archetypal complaint alleged that Microsoft had “illegally tied” its Microsoft Teams merchandise to Office and is “force installing it for millions, blocking its removal, and hiding the existent outgo to endeavor customers.”

If Microsoft is recovered blameworthy of antitrust violations, the steadfast could look a good of up to 10 percent of the company’s yearly worldwide turnover. The European Commission could besides enforce remedies to unit Microsoft to alteration its bundle products, overmuch similar it has successful the past.

In 2004 the European Commission ordered Microsoft to connection a mentation of Windows without Media Player bundled, which resulted successful a Windows XP N mentation disposable lone successful EU markets. In 2009 Microsoft was besides forced to instrumentality a browser ballot container successful its Windows operating strategy to guarantee users were presented with a prime of web browsers, aft years of Microsoft bunding Internet Explorer with Windows. Microsoft was past fined $730 million in 2013 for failing to see the browser ballot successful Windows 7 SP1.