EU investigates Microsoft over Teams/Office bundling
The European Commission will probe the US tech giant over anti-competitive practices
The European Commission is to investigate Microsoft over claims that linking its Teams videoconferencing app with popular Office software stifles competition.
The Commission will open a formal probe next week, investigating allegations that the Windows-maker is abusing its dominant market position.
Four people with direct knowledge of the matter told the Financial Times that the EC had decided Microsoft's concessions on the matter were insufficient.
Back in April, Microsoft offered to stop forcing Office customers to also install Teams. That move followed a 2020 complaint to the EU by competitor Slack, which alleged that the bundling broke competition law.
Talks on that case are continuing, but the FT's sources say it is "very unlikely" that the company will avoid a formal investigation.
In fact, the Commission could issue formal charges as early as this autumn.
Talks have apparently stalled over whether the proposed concessions would only apply in the EU. Brussels has called on Microsoft to implement them worldwide.
Microsoft is keen to avoid conflict with the EU, as it has done since 2009. That was the last time Brussels took the company to task, charging it with anti-competitive practices for bundling Internet Explorer with Windows.
Since then, the Redmond-based company has remained out of the EU's crosshairs, even as it has taken aim at other Big Tech firms like Apple, Google and Meta.
While both parties continue to tread lightly around each other in statements to the press, other stakeholders have not been so gentle.
Stéphanie Yon-Courtin, a French MEP and a former adviser to the French competition authority, has urged the European Commission to pressure Microsoft for more concessions.
She pointed out that, three years after Slack lodged its complaint, Microsoft Teams has grown to about 270 million users worldwide. Meanwhile, Slack languishes at about 20 million.