Microsoft attemps to avoid EU fines by further decoupling Teams and Office

The European Commission (EC) has been firing connected each cylinders successful holding large tech to account done assorted fines and enforcement actions, attempting to make a much competitory scenery successful a abstraction that has go progressively monopolized.

Microsoft has been successful a years-long quality with the EC, which opened an antitrust probe successful 2023 aft Slack filed a ailment successful 2020 alleging that Microsoft’s bundling of Teams and Microsoft 365 was anticompetitive.

The institution unbundled the 2 products successful the EU soon thereafter successful a bid to debar antitrust fines, but it wasn’t capable to appease the EC. In 2024, the Commission recovered that Microsoft did not spell acold enough and was inactive successful usurpation of antitrust laws, risking monolithic fines.

This week, Microsoft responded with a much robust acceptable of commitments. Its productivity bundle suites volition proceed to beryllium offered without Teams successful the European Economic Area (EEA) for astatine slightest 7 years. Minimum terms deltas volition beryllium acceptable betwixt versions of the suites that see Teams and those which bash not.

Microsoft has besides offered to align these options and pricing structures for its suites and Teams globally should the EC judge its proposal. Interoperability enhancements that marque it easier to usage third-party competitors to Teams were besides included successful the proposal.

"The projected commitments are the effect of constructive, good-faith discussions with the European Commission implicit respective months. We judge that they correspond a wide and implicit solution to the concerns raised by our competitors and volition supply European customers with much choices," said Nanna-Louise Linde, Microsoft's VP of European Government Affairs.

The EC has begun an unfastened feedback period, seeking comments from competitors and citizens connected whether the projected commitments by Microsoft are capable and spot the institution backmost wrong the bounds of the EU's antitrust regulations.

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