Microsoft accused of EU antitrust violations for grouping teams

EU regulators have accused Microsoft of illegally bundling its Teams chat app with its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 subscriptions. It’s the first time Microsoft has been accused of antitrust violations in the EU in 15 years, following two major related cases to the Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer suite.

“The European Commission has informed Microsoft of its preliminary view that Microsoft violated EU antitrust rules by linking its Teams communications and collaboration product with its popular productivity apps included in its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 business suites,” it states the European Commission in a statement today.

Microsoft has now received a statement of objections, a list of the EU’s concerns about the Teams grouping. The software giant separated Teams from Office in Europe last year in a bid to address regulators’ concerns, and then separated Teams from Office 365 as its own separate app around the world. The separation was not enough to avoid accusations, however.

“We are concerned that Microsoft may be giving its own Teams communications product an undue advantage over competitors by tying it to its popular business productivity suites,” says Margrethe Vestager, head of competition policy in Europe. “If confirmed, Microsoft’s conduct would be illegal under our competition rules. Microsoft now has the opportunity to address our concerns.”

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 resolve the Commission’s remaining concerns,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a statement to Financial Times.

EU lawmakers first opened an antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s Teams bundling last year, following an anti-competition complaint filed by Slack in July 2020. Slack’s original complaint alleged that Microsoft had “illegally linked” its product Microsoft Teams to Office and is “forcing millions to install it, blocking its removal and hiding the true cost from business customers.”

If Microsoft is found guilty of antitrust violations, the company could face a fine of up to 10% of the company’s annual worldwide revenue. The European Commission could also impose remedies to force Microsoft to change its software products, as it has done in the past.

In 2004, the European Commission ordered Microsoft to offer a version of Windows without Media Player included, which resulted in a version of Windows XP N being available only in EU markets. In 2009, Microsoft was also forced to implement a browser urn in its Windows operating system to ensure users had browser choices, after years of integrating Internet Explorer with Windows. Microsoft was then fined $730 million in 2013 for not including browser voting in Windows 7 SP1.