EU uncovers Microsoft’s violation of antitrust laws in a scheme involving Teams bundling

Nearly a year after the European Commission launched an investigation into Microsoft, a preliminary finding has been revealed. The European Union’s executive body has stated that the tech giant violated antitrust laws by bundling Microsoft Teams with its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 business suites. Despite Microsoft’s decision to unbundle Teams for users in the EU and Switzerland last October, the European Commission deems it “insufficient.”

Concerns raised by the European Commission include the possibility that Microsoft may have given Teams a distribution advantage by not allowing customers to choose whether or not to access Teams when subscribing to their SaaS productivity applications. This advantage, coupled with interoperability limitations between Teams and its competitors, may have hindered competition and innovation in the European Economic Area to the detriment of customers.

Microsoft could face a fine equivalent to 10 percent of its annual worldwide turnover if the EU upholds its preliminary findings. In response, Microsoft has expressed willingness to address the Commission’s concerns and work towards solutions. The investigation stemmed from a 2020 antitrust complaint filed by Slack (now owned by Salesforce) against Microsoft. Despite Microsoft’s announcement in April 2023 to offer Teams separately, the European Commission proceeded with its investigation and mentioned a complaint from Alfaview, a video-conferencing software, filed in July 2023.