Microsoft responds to Slack's complaint before the European Commission

Earlier today, Slack announced that it has filed a complaint against Microsoft for bundling Microsoft Teams with Office 365 for enterprise customers.

Microsoft has illegally tied its Teams product into its market-dominant Office productivity suite, force installing it for millions, blocking its removal, and hiding the true cost to enterprise customers – Slack.

You can read about Slack’s complaint in detail here. Microsoft has now responded to Slack’s complaint. Microsoft claimed that organizations did not adopt Slack because of the lack of video conferencing capabilities. You can find Microsoft’s full statement below.

“We created Teams to combine the ability to collaborate with the ability to connect via video, because that’s what people want. With COVID-19, the market has embraced Teams in record numbers while Slack suffered from its absence of video-conferencing. We’re committed to offering customers not only the best of new innovation, but a wide variety of choice in how they purchase and use the product. We look forward to providing additional information to the European Commission and answering any questions they may have.”

Slack’s complaint against Microsoft has several factual issues. You can find some of them below.

Slack’s claim 1: “Microsoft has illegally tied its Teams product into its market-dominant Office productivity suite, force installing it for millions,…”

Fact: Microsoft Teams is not installed without user’s permission. In fact, it is not part of Office suite. Even after full Office installation, you need to download Microsoft Teams client separately.

Slack’s claim 2: “blocking its removal”

Fact: Anyone can uninstall Microsoft Teams client from their PC at anytime. Microsoft does not have any condition for Teams uninstallation.

Slack’s claim 3: “hiding the true cost to enterprise customers”

Fact: Microsoft Teams is part of Microsoft 365 subscription bundle which includes several apps and services (totally 18) at a low-monthly cost. In fact, the price of the bundle remains almost the same for several years now. Microsoft need not provide how much each application and service will cost to customers. As per Slack’s logic, Amazon with its $120/year Prime subscription should provide individual pricing information on free 2-day delivery, Prime deals access, Prime Video service, Prime Music service and several other services.

Source: Microsoft