In July 2023, the European Commission accused Microsoft of violating European competition rules by integrating its videoconferencing application Teams into its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 office suites. The allegations claimed that Microsoft used its dominant position in the software market to unfairly promote its own chat and videoconferencing tools over competitors.
Microsoft integrated Teams with popular applications like Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook without any additional cost for customers. This gave customers no choice but to have access to Teams when they subscribed to these applications. Additionally, there were restrictions on interoperability between Microsoft’s services and the products of Teams’ competitors, raising concerns about anti-competitive behavior.
The investigation into Microsoft’s actions began after complaints from Slack and Alfaview. Although Microsoft made some adjustments to the distribution of Teams in response to the investigation, the Commission believes that these changes are not enough to address all competition concerns.
This latest development could result in significant fines for Microsoft, potentially amounting to 10 percent of its global turnover. The company will have an opportunity to respond to the allegations, but there is currently no deadline for completing the investigation.
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