EU Antitrust Case: Microsoft Dodges Fine with Landmark Teams Commitments

Microsoft has successfully averted a significant fine from the European Commission following an extensive antitrust investigation. The tech giant was previously charged with EU antitrust violations for bundling its Teams communication app with Office 365 and Microsoft 365 subscriptions, a practice that drew a formal complaint from rival Slack in July 2020.

The European Commission confirmed it has accepted a series of commitments from Microsoft designed to address competition concerns. These commitments specifically target the tying of Microsoft Teams to its popular productivity suite, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, for business customers.

Key commitments from Microsoft include making versions of its Office suites available without Teams at a reduced price, allowing customers with long-term licenses to switch to these Teams-free suites, and ensuring interoperability for essential functionalities between Teams-competing communication tools and certain Microsoft products. Additionally, Microsoft has pledged to facilitate data portability, enabling customers to easily move their data out of Teams to competing solutions.

Most of these commitments will be enforced by EU lawmakers for seven years, with the interoperability and data portability measures extending for a decade. Microsoft had previously begun unbundling Teams from Office in Europe in 2023 to preempt regulatory action and later spun off Teams globally as a standalone app last year.

Teresa Ribera, executive vice president for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition at the European Commission, emphasized the decision’s importance for competition in the crucial market of videoconferencing, chat, and collaboration tools. This ruling ensures businesses can freely choose the product best suited to their needs, especially given the increased reliance on these platforms since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The EU’s antitrust investigation into Teams bundling commenced in 2023, stemming from Slack’s complaint which alleged Microsoft had ‘illegally tied’ Teams to Office, ‘force installing it for millions, blocking its removal, and hiding the true cost to enterprise customers.’

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