EU opens antitrust probe into Microsoft over Teams bundling
Silhouettes of laptop users are seen next to a screen projection of Microsoft logo in this photo illustration.
European Union regulators on Thursday opened an antitrust investigation into Microsoft's bundling of its video and chat app Teams with other Office products.
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said that these practices may constitute anti-competitive behavior.
It is the first antitrust investigation by the EU into Microsoft in over a decade.
"The Commission is concerned that Microsoft may grant Teams a distribution advantage by not giving customers the choice on whether or not to include access to that product when they subscribe to their productivity suites and may have limited the interoperability between its productivity suites and competing offerings," the EU regulators said on Thursday in a press release.
In other words, the EU is concerned Microsoft is not giving customers the choice to not buy Teams when they subscribe to the company's Office 365 product. In doing so, Microsoft might be stopping other companies from competing in the workplace messaging and video app space.
"These practices may constitute anti-competitive tying or bundling and prevent suppliers of other communication and collaboration tools from competing," the Commission added.
Microsoft 365, previously known as Office 365, is Microsoft's set of software which includes workplace-geared apps like Word and Excel.
Antitrust investigations do not have a self-imposed completion deadline. If Microsoft is found to be in breach of EU competition rules, the U.S. tech giant could face a fine of up to 10% of its total global annual turnover.
Source: CNBC
