European Commission OKs Microsoft’s Proposals to Resolve Teams Antitrust Probe

The European Commission has accepted Microsoft’s proposals to address the European Union’s competition concerns over the company’s conduct around its collaboration platform Teams.

This decision resolves the Commission’s antitrust investigation launched in July 2023, which looked intowhether Microsoft violated EU competition rules by tying Teams to its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 product suites, the Commission said in a Thursday (Sept. 11) press release.

Microsoft’s commitments in this agreement include increasing the price difference between some Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites without Teams and those with Teams, clarifying that the company’s websites that offers a suite with Teams should also offer one without Teams, and publishing information about interoperability and data portability on its relevant developer-facing websites, according to the release.

The company also said it will align its worldwide suite offers and pricing with these commitments, the release said.

The commitments related to interoperability and portability will remain in force for 10 years, while the others will remain in force for seven years, per the release.

“With today’s decision, we make binding for seven years or more Microsoft’s commitments to put an end to its tying practices that may be preventing rivals from effectively competing with Teams,” Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s executive vice-president for clean, just and competitive transition, said in the release. “Today’s decision therefore opens up competition in this crucial market, and ensures that businesses can freely choose the communication and collaboration product that best suits their needs.”

Reached by PYMNTS, Microsoft provided a statement from Nanna-Louise Linde, vice president of European government affairs, who said: “We appreciate the dialog with the commission that led to this agreement, and we turn now to implementing these new obligations promptly and fully.”

The European Commission’s investigation was sparked by a complaint filed in 2020 by workplace software company Slack, which alleged that Microsoft violated competition law by tying Teams to its Office productivity suite.

It was reported Sept. 4 that EU regulators had decided to accept Microsoft’s settlement offer after receiving positive feedback on it from the company’s customers and rivals and that the decision was expected to be finalized within weeks.