Microsoft was accused of antitrust violations by the EU
The European Commission is investigating Microsoft’s practices with Teams, as amended by the Slack XML/Windows Explorer ad-hoc complaint
EU lawmakers first opened a Microsoft antitrust investigation into Teams bundling last year, following an anti-competitive complaint filed by Slack in July 2020. According to the original complaint, Microsoft has tied its Microsoft Teams product to Office and is forcing users to install it for millions of dollars.
Microsoft says it is working with the EU to find solutions. “Having unbundled Teams and taken initial interoperability steps, we appreciate the additional clarity provided today and will work to find solutions to address the Commission’s remaining concerns,” says Microsoft president Brad Smith in a statement to the Financial Times.
If Microsoft is found guilty of antitrust violations, the firm could face a fine of up to 10 percent of the company’s annual worldwide turnover. The European Commission could also impose remedies to force Microsoft to change its software products, much like it has in the past.
In 2004 the European Commission ordered Microsoft to offer a version of Windows without Media Player bundled, which resulted in a Windows XP N version available only in EU markets. In 2009 Microsoft was also forced to implement a browser ballot box in its Windows operating system to ensure users were presented with a choice of web browsers, after years of Microsoft bunding Internet Explorer with Windows. Microsoft was then fined $730 million in 2013 for failing to include the browser ballot in Windows 7 SP1.
Brussels has accused Microsoft of illegally abusing its dominance in the business-software market at the expense of smaller rivals, following a complaint at the height of the pandemic by US competitor Slack.
On Tuesday, Sabastian Niles, president and chief legal officer of Slack’s parent company Salesforce, described the European Commission’s position as “a win for customer choice and an affirmation that Microsoft’s practices with Teams have harmed competition.”
