Microsoft's Teams Bundling Faces Antitrust Investigation in EU

The European Commission opened a formal investigation to evaluate Microsoft's move to bundle Teams, Office 365, and Microsoft 365.

The EU is currently looking to see if Microsoft have breached EU's competition rules.

"The Commission is concerned that Microsoft may be abusing and defending its market position in productivity software by restricting competition in the European Economic Area ('EEA') for communication and collaboration products," EU wrote on a press release.

Slack Technologies Files Complaint

On July 2020, Slack Technologies, Inc. submitted a complaints against Microsoft.

The submitted document claimed that Microsoft has illegally bundled Teams to its productivity suites, such as Office 365 and Microsoft 365.

The EU has already informed Microsoft and the concerned authorities that the proceedings in the case is now opened.

Microsoft's Booming Softwares

Microsoft owed most of the success of Teams and productivity suites to the pandemic, after it forced people to work remotely for more than two years.

"Remote communication and collaboration tools like Teams have become indispensable for many businesses in Europe. We must therefore ensure that the markets for these products remain competitive, and companies are free to choose the products that best meet their needs," executive vice president in charge of competition policy, Margrethe Vestager stated.

In a response issued to The Verge, Microsoft assured that they will cooperate with the Commission and will "remain committed to finding solutions that will address its concerns."