EU says Microsoft Teams gives company unfair advantage

The European Union (EU) has officially accused Microsoft of violating competition rules by bundling its Teams video conferencing application with its popular Microsoft 365 subscription.

The EU issued a statement of objections on June 25, saying Microsoft’s practices had had a negative impact on competition in the market.

The European investigation, which has lasted almost a year, stems from a complaint filed in July 2020 by Slack, the online collaboration tool owned by Salesforce.

Microsoft found guilty of anti-competitive practices

The European Commission said it is “concerned that Microsoft may have given Teams a distribution advantage by not giving customers the choice of whether or not to acquire access to Teams when subscribing to their productivity apps SaaS”.

In its statement, the Commission acknowledged that Microsoft partially decoupled Teams from its productivity software subscription earlier in 2024, but it appears that was not enough to address concerns.

The EC says Microsoft was informed of its preliminary opinion, according to which the company violated EU antitrust rules.

Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President for Competition Policy, commented: “If confirmed, Microsoft’s conduct would be unlawful under our competition rules. Microsoft now has the opportunity to address our concerns.

In response to the latest developments, Sabastian Niles, President and General Counsel of Salesforce, added:

“The Statement of Objections published today by the European Commission is a victory for customer choice and an affirmation that Microsoft’s practices with Teams have harmed competition. We appreciate the Commission’s thorough investigation into Slack’s complaint and urge the Commission to move towards a rapid, binding and effective solution that restores free and fair choice and promotes competition, interoperability and innovation in the digital ecosystem.

The news comes just weeks after Microsoft admitted it may need to take “additional steps” to respond to the ongoing antitrust investigation.

TechRadar Pro asked Microsoft for comment on the matter, but the company did not immediately respond.