Microsoft risks EU fine up to 10% of its global annual turnover over Teams' bundling practice
Microsoft said it's un-bundling Teams in April, but it's not enough
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Key notes
- EU accuses Microsoft of antitrust violations for bundling Teams with Office 365.
- Microsoft could face up to 10% fine of its global turnover, if found guilty.
- Changes in April include offering Office subscriptions without Teams and standalone Teams.
The European Union (EU) Commission has blasted Microsoft over antitrust violations for bundling Microsoft Teams with its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 productivity suites. Brussels said on Tuesday that, if confirmed and upheld, Microsoft will be obliged to pay “a fine of up to 10% of the company’s annual worldwide turnover.”
Microsoft has begun offering suites without Teams worldwide back in April, but the EU demands more changes to restore competition. This practice allegedly restricts competition by not giving customers a choice to exclude Teams, potentially giving it an unfair advantage and limiting competitors’ interoperability with Microsoft software.
“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 concern,” Microsoft’s president Brad Smith responded to EC in a statement to the press.
This accusation follows a 2020 complaint from Slack where Teams’ number-one competitor alleged that Microsoft abused its market dominance by bundling Teams with its Office software suite, thereby eliminating fair competition.
“The Commission is concerned that, since at least April 2019, Microsoft has been tying Teams with its core SaaS productivity applications, thereby restricting competition on the market for communication and collaboration products and defending its market position in productivity software and its suites-centric model from competing suppliers of individual software,” the European Commission says.
When announcing that it’s un-bundling Teams from other Microsoft 365 apps back in April, Microsoft said that it would offer increased flexibility to businesses by allowing them to choose subscriptions without Teams or opt for standalone Teams purchases.
Office subscriptions without Teams range from $7.75 to $54.75, while standalone Teams is priced at $5.25, varying by location and currency.
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