The US software company Microsoft is facing a heavy antitrust fine from Brussels because of its handling of the popular chat and video application Teams. EU competition authorities do not consider Microsoft’s concessions to separate Teams and the Office product family to be sufficient. If the EU sticks to its stance, Microsoft could have to pay fines of up to ten percent of annual turnover.
In response to the allegations, the US company had already announced in April that it would sell Teams worldwide – and not just in Europe, as previously planned – separately from the Office packages. “The Commission considers these changes to be insufficient for the time being. Microsoft must do more to restore competition,” the statement said. “Maintaining competition in telecommunications and collaboration applications is essential, not least because it promotes innovation in these markets,” said EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.
The EU’s investigation was a response to a complaint from competitor Salesforce, which owns the messaging app “Slack”. Teams was initially launched free of charge with Office 365 in 2017 as a replacement for Skype Business. During the coronavirus pandemic, its popularity grew primarily because of its video conferencing functions. The Commission justified its criticism by saying that joint marketing with Office gave Microsoft a sales advantage. In addition, there were problems in the interaction with Microsoft programs when customers used competing messaging systems.
Microsoft CEO Brad Smith stressed the company’s willingness to address concerns from Brussels. “We welcome the additional clarity we have today and will continue to work on solutions to address the Commission’s remaining concerns.” Over the past two decades, the US company has paid a total of 2.2 billion euros for the illegal bundling of two or more products.