The European Union said Tuesday that Microsoft abused its market power when it folded the Teams communications platform into its Office 365 suite.
It’s second major E.U. action in two days against a Big Tech firm. European regulators on Monday levied antitrust accusations against Apple.
Microsoft may be giving Teams an undue advantage by tying it to its other business products, said Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s executive vice president for competition policy.
“Preserving competition for remote communication and collaboration tools is essential as it also fosters innovation on these markets,” Vestager said.
The E.U. eventually could levy fines of up to 10 percent of the company’s “annual worldwide turnover.”
The accusations against Microsoft come from an investigation that was opened in July 2023 following a complaint by Slack Technologies, which has its own workplace communications app.
After the commission opened its investigation Microsoft made certain changes to the way it distributed Teams, such as offering some suites without it. But the E.U. concluded that those changes were insufficient.
“Having unbundled Teams and taken initial interoperability steps, we appreciate the additional clarity provided today and will work to find solutions to address the Commission‘s remaining concerns,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a statement Tuesday.
European regulators said Microsoft put rivals at a disadvantage because the company did not give customers the choice of whether to download Teams. The company may also have benefited from a lack of interoperability with competing communications platforms, regulators said.
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