European Commission issues antitrust opinion on Microsoft's 'Office and Teams bundle'

The European Commission has issued a preliminary opinion to Microsoft stating that its current practice of bundling Teams with Office 365 and Microsoft 365 violates antitrust laws.

Statement of Objections to Microsoft
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_3446

Microsoft also includes the messaging service Teams in its subscription service for Office products such as Word and Excel, Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365). However, it has been pointed out that including Teams in Microsoft 365 'deprives users of the freedom to choose messaging services other than Teams,' and in July 2023, the European Commission launched an investigation into Microsoft for alleged antitrust violations.

Microsoft is under investigation by EU regulators for allegedly violating antitrust laws by bundling Office and Teams - GIGAZINE

Then, on June 25, 2024, the European Commission announced that it had notified Microsoft of its preliminary opinion that 'Microsoft has violated antitrust laws.' According to the announcement, the European Commission provisionally determined that 'Microsoft has a dominant position in the global SaaS market for professional use.' Specifically, it pointed out that 'Microsoft linked Teams to its core SaaS productivity applications at the latest since April 2019, thereby restricting competition in the collaboration product market and protecting its position in the productivity application market from competitors.'

The European Commission further criticized Microsoft, stating, 'Microsoft did not give Microsoft 365 users the choice whether or not to use Teams. This gave Teams a distribution advantage. Furthermore, Microsoft reinforced Teams' advantage by restricting the interoperability of competing apps with Microsoft products. These actions have limited competition and innovation by Teams' competitors and may have caused harm to the European Economic Area.'

Microsoft will begin offering Microsoft 365 plans that do not include Teams in April 2024. However, the European Commission has stated that it has 'preliminarily determined that these changes are insufficient and that further changes in Microsoft's behavior are necessary to restore competition,' and is calling for further action from Microsoft.

Microsoft cuts Office prices worldwide and stops Teams bundled sales - GIGAZINE

Although this announcement is still a 'preliminary opinion,' if Microsoft is ultimately found to have violated antitrust laws, the company could be fined up to 10% of its annual worldwide revenue.